


Fikush-ON!

by Bobonius



Category: K-On!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, High School, Original Character(s), Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:14:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29461821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobonius/pseuds/Bobonius
Summary: Wake up, go to school, come home, waste time, sleep. Is this all there is? This is what 15-year-old Sugimoto Eiji thought before accidentally bumping into a certain girl one night. The life goes on as always, except now he's visiting the girl once in a while, having a chat over a cup of tea. He also has some time to think about his life, and what kind of a future it'll hold.Rated M for coarse language and violenceI wrote this fic back in 2015, and finally got myself to translate it to English.Artwork by my talented friend who wants to stay anonymous.
Relationships: Hirasawa Ui & Original Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	1. A Girl With a Ponytail

I can honestly tell you that I was pissed off. No excuses, I was quite upset.

I had traversed through the whole town just to get to that one and only bookstore that had received a fresh supply of the second volume of _Warriors of Lotus_ a week ago. But when I finally got there, I was told it was sold out, and new copies wouldn’t be available until next week. I managed to calm myself down, despite the storming anger inside me, and stepped out of the store. Since I had some money, I bought a soda can from a vending machine nearby and sat on a low stone fence to enjoy my drink, watching the setting sun, and thinking about my life affairs. When I felt like I had rested long enough I stood up, stretched my legs, and began heading back home. It would take another hour.

As I walked, I set aside my thoughts and looked around. It had become quite dark since I left the store. I checked my watch; it actually was getting late. Luckily, it was Friday, so I wasn’t in much of a hurry. I loosened up my walking pace a little, so I wouldn’t tire myself. Half an hour had passed as I got out of the downtown area and was walking through a suburb. Not much farther anymore. I raised my right hand to a horizontal position, letting it jump over the cracks of a wooden fence, whilst humming a song from my favorite band. I quickly pulled my hand back as the wooden fence switched into a coarse stonewall. I stopped at a corner to take a closer look around, thinking there weren’t many people about. Probably since it was a weekend; they most likely had better stuff to do that walk through suburbs at Friday night. I shrugged whilst agreeing with myself and continued forward.

I started recognizing my surroundings after a while of walking. I was just about to start humming another song when I got startled by the sound of footsteps. So, there was someone else here after all, during a weekend and at this hour. Most likely someone who didn’t have anything better to do, just like myself. The muted footsteps came from around the corner not far from me. The closer they came, the faster they got. Almost as if someone were fleeing from something, or some _one_.

Shortly after, a girl appeared from around the corner. Brown hair in a small ponytail, carrying a grocery bag, and a worried expression on her face. I leaned on the fence next to me trying to figure out what was going on, and if I should do anything about it. My thought process got interrupted by that girl. She had walked over to me without me noticing, a worried look still on her face. She didn’t say a word but was just staring downwards at her shoes. A series of questions started popping into my head, as I was trying to decide which one to ask.

“What are you—,” I was about to say, when sounds of more footsteps could be heard coming from around that same corner. That’s when the girl flinched.

“I… I think I’m being followed. I… I’m scared, and I…”

After hearing this I took couple of steps backwards behind the fence, and the girl followed my example. As I peeked around the corner, I saw three drunken college students tottering on the street.

“Where ish ith?” I could hear them asking each other.

I retreated back around the corner, crossing my arms, and tilting my head downward. Guess I had to do something about this… After a few seconds I got an idea, the kind that felt like it would actually work. I turned to face the girl, who still seemed frightened. I shook my red, oversized hoodie off my shoulders and handed it over to her.

“Here, put this on.”

She glanced at the me with a confused look, so I explained my plan in a better detail: “They won’t recognize you in this.”

The girl seemed to finally realize what I had in my mind. She lowered the bag gently to the ground and took my hoodie, putting it on. After throwing the hood on her head, she picked the groceries up, waiting for further orders.

“Now, stick close to me. Let’s get moving.”

Without a word she grasped my arm, and we started walking alongside the fence away from the trio, who continued down the street instead of turning this way. The plan was successful. Still, the girl didn’t stop but just kept walking. Guess she got quite spooked, huh. Sure, I could just shake her off, but…

“You live nearby?” I asked her. “I could accompany you there, if it’d make you feel safer.”

She told me she lives couple of blocks away and instructed me to turn left at the next intersection. As we walked, I tried my best not to shiver due to the fact that I wasn’t wearing my hoodie. Every part of my body felt cold, except for my left arm, to which that girl was still clinging to. However, I didn’t feel like mentioning that since it seemed to give her a sense of safety.

We finally arrived at her house after a short walk. There was a rough stone pillar with a nameplate on it, which read **Hirasawa**. The Hirasawa house was a white, three-story house. Fairly basic, if a bit narrower than usual houses. We stopped right before the yard tiles, and the girl finally had the courage to let go of me. The cold wind started immediately tormenting my left arm.

“Here it is, my home,” the girl stated whilst looking at the front door.

She laid the grocery bag on the ground and took off the hoodie, handing it back to me. My body was pleased to receive a warmed up hoodie around it. I shook my hands out of the oversized sleeves and slipped them into my pockets. I turned around to face the girl, who was still standing there with a gentle smile on her face.

She bowed shyly. “Thank you for your help.”

I couldn’t help but let out a slight snicker. “Nah, don’t worry about it, Hirasawa-san.”

“Ui,” she said quickly. “I’m Hirasawa Ui.”

“…Hirasawa Ui,” I repeated after her for no particular reason.

She just kept smiling, until she yawned, which made me take a look at my watch. It was getting late.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going now. Keep yourself safe,” I said, slowly walking backwards away from the house.

Hirasawa picked up her groceries from the ground and waved at me, stepping into the house. I answered the gesture with a wave of a hand, and turned around, facing forward, and started making my journey back home.

…months passed by, and as always, without anything interesting happening…

As I opened the front door, a cold wind hit me in the face. The winter was coming. Grass was frosted up, breath was visible, and no one sensible ventured outside without long-sleeved clothing. And since it was night, it was particularly cold. Luckily, I only had to take out the trash. I performed the task as fast as I could and ran back inside. I took my shoes off and was heading towards the stairs.

“Looks like we’ll be getting some snow next month,” my big brother noted from the living room. I didn’t bother looking that way, but I could hear he was watching weather forecast on the TV.

I was on the first step of the stairs, when he added: “By the way, it’s your turn to take Dash for a walk.”

This made me grimace. There wasn’t anything wrong with Dash, she’s obedient after all. The reason for my reluctance was the weather. I bet any dog owner hates cold weathers. I let out a deep sigh and continued up the stairs. I headed to my room and threw myself on top of my bed. I rolled over to my side and studied my room a little further. The photos on the bookshelf, all the crap on my computer desk, and the coffee stain on my black-and-white carpet. Eh, guess it should be washed sometime.

After I felt like I had pondered on my few worldly possessions long enough, I stood up and walked over to my closet. I took out my red hoodie, and put on, and made my way downstairs. Dash was lying on her bed in the corner of the living room, right next to the space heater. That dog sure is living a life of luxury. As I grabbed the leash off the wall, Dash jumped up on her legs and ran to me. Despite her otherwise lazy personality, she loves going out for walks. And since Dash is a husky, it felt like she liked winters more than any other seasons. I led it to the foyer, where I put on my shoes and my black winter coat, after which I attached the leash to Dash’s harness.

I opened the front door. “I’m off.”

My brother answered with some unintelligible murmur. I closed the door, descended from the porch, and started walking.

Dash was a three-year-old gray female husky. She’s been a part of our family ever since she was a puppy. Sometimes I’ve thought about attaching a sled to Dash and test out her heritage as a sled dog. After getting out of my own neighborhood, I squatted down and gave Dash a pat on the head.

“How about it, girl? Can you handle a longer walk?”

It just kept panting like always, not even a single bark for an answer. I let out an amused snort and continued on walking. I had a lot of things on my mind, and I figured that a long walk could possibly help me clear them up. I lost the sense of time and direction as I ventured on.

A while later I came across an intersection, where I jumped over the curb to cross the street. This caused the coins in my pocket to jingle, which gave me an idea. For some reason I had a feeling that there was a grocery store nearby. It didn’t take long until I found it at the end of the street. Weird, I’ve never been here before. I tied Dash’s leash to a nearby fence and went into the store. The cashier greeted me as I disappeared between the shelves to browse some goods. I didn’t even know what to buy, I just wanted to get rid of the coins in my pocket. After a couple of minutes, I ended up buying a soda bottle and a small pack of chips.

“Where the hell even am I?” I muttered under my breath as I was untying Dash’s leash.

Ah well, no need to worry. I always find my way home. I mean, I think so, at least. I started walking to the direction I came from, and Dash followed right by my side. It was quiet, rather peaceful. Only a few cars here and there, and even fewer pedestrians. Guess people don’t like the cold weather. Can’t blame them, I’d rather be under a kotatsu right about now myself.

Dash suddenly halted and raised her ears. Confusedly, I first looked at Dash and then at the direction it was staring at. I heard some muffled footsteps. Ah, so there was someone else here after all. I shrugged and twitched the leash a couple of times, after which Dash started moving again, and we continued walking along the street. But to my surprise, I noticed a person a little further away. A girl. Actually, it was that Hirasawa Ui gal I helped some months ago. It took some time before she recognized me, after which we both came to a halt.

I raised my hand. “Hi again.”

Dash knew this would take a while, so it sat down.

“Hey. It’s sure been a while,” Hirasawa answered with a wave.

“Yeah, sure. You doing okay?” I asked as a formality.

“Yes, I’m doing just fine,” she answered with a slight smile.

Hirasawa took a glance at Dash, which was just sitting there without an interest. “Oh, is that your dog?”

“Yeah, it’s Dash,” I answered as I nodded towards the bored canine. “I decided to take a longer walk, that’s why I’m here. Again.”

Hirasawa nodded and turned to face Dash. “Hey there, Dash. Nice to meet you.”

Dash took only a quick glance towards Ui, and just as quickly returned to just lazing around. Well, this became rather awkward. Guess I should say something to break the silence.

“So, uh, what are up to?” I asked her. Man, this is the second time we meet. Why am I still talking to her?

Seemingly confused by my out-of-nowhere questions, she still answered: “Oh, uh, I’m going out to buy groceries.”

As if I was expecting something more exciting… I felt like I had wasted enough of her time, so I signaled Dash to get on her feet.

“Well, I won’t bother you for any longer. Take care,” I said with a wave of a hand, and walked past the girl.

After just a few meters I could hear the girl behind me talk; “Hey, uh…”

I turned around to look at the girl.

“…come visit me sometime,” she offered with a timid smile.

I looked at her for a couple of seconds, and smirked. “Sure, whatever.”

I turned back and began heading home with the small plastic bag rustling in my hand, and Dash jogging alongside me. I continued on thinking about my affairs of life.


	2. Winter Holidays

“God fucking damn it!” a yell echoed from the kitchen on a chilly winter noon.

I got up from the couch and took a peek into the kitchen, where I saw my big brother holding his finger under a running faucet.

“Fucking coffee, why the hell it has to be so hot?” he mumbled to himself.

I chuckled and grabbed a coffee mug from a kitchen cabinet. “You could always have ice coffee instead. Oh wait, you hated that shit.”

“You and your damn coffee,” my brother retorted.

I poured myself some coffee and carried it over to the living room’s kotatsu. I sat down on the floor, sliding my feet under the blanket, and peered out of the half frosted window. I took a sip of coffee and took my phone out of my pocket, checking my messages.

_“Sorry, I can’t right now…”_

_“Unfortunately…”_

Figures. My friends had better things to do during the winter holidays. With a sigh, I closed the phone’s lid and took another sip from my coffee. My brother finally managed to cool his finger and joined me at the kotatsu with his own steaming mug. We heard someone coming down the stairs. It was our little sister, who headed straight to the kitchen, and a while later came back with a cup of hot chocolate, joining us. We just sat there, each drinking their own steamy drinks, thinking about their own things. Mom was still at work, and dad was taking a nap, so I guess we were the only ones up and about.

After a short while I took the mug to my lips, only to find it empty. I reluctantly stood up and took the empty mug to the kitchen sink. I leaned against the fridge, looking at the ceiling. What to do, where to go… Eh, guess I should go for a walk, maybe I’ll figure something out. I moved to the foyer where I dressed in my winter attire.

“I’m going out for a while,” I said towards the living room and opened the front door.

“Okay,” my sister answered, and my brother murmured something unintelligible.

I was treading along the road, the shallow snow crumbling under my feet. It was pretty chilly, but the amount of snow made up for it. I scooped a handful of snow from top of a stone fence, patted it into a snowball, and threw it to a ditch across the street, after which I continued on my journey. I happened to pass by one of my friend’s house and noticed that the lights were off, and the car was nowhere to be seen. Guess they really had something better to do, somewhere more interesting to be. I breathed in the cold air and exhaled it in the form of a sigh. Nowhere to go, no one to visit…

…visit?

I got some kind of an idea, so I started walking.

After approximately half an hour of walking, I started thinking about my idea more carefully. Maybe it’s not such a good plan after all. Maybe I should just head back home and play some games to pass the time…

“Oh, hey,” I heard a familiar voice.

Taken aback for a bit, I turned to face the direction of the voice. It was Hirasawa, Hirasawa Ui. I noticed I was standing in front of the Hirasawa residence, and she was out to grab the mail. Man, I got to stop thinking about things and just concentrate more on my surroundings.

“Nice to see you again,” she said.

“Huh? Uh, yeah, sure,” I answered a bit dazed.

A chilling breeze rushed past us, causing her to tighten the neck of her blouse.

She looked at the house behind her, and then back to me. “Do you want to come inside?”

I was processing her question, still a bit dazed, when another breeze blew past me.

“Uh, well, you see… Yeah, sure, I guess,” I managed to stutter.

Well, _this_ wasn’t going how I thought it would go at all. Is it really acceptable to step into acquaintances house after exchanging just a few words? Well, it would’ve been rude to decline right after accepting the invite, so I decided to step on the yard tiling and followed the girl to the front door. After kicking the snow off my boots, I stepped inside.

The house’s foyer was surprisingly clean, at least cleaner than ours. The atmosphere felt surprisingly warm. I saw a set of stairs leading up, and next to it a hallway leading into some kind of a study room. I surveyed my surroundings for a couple of seconds, until I realized to take off my boots.

As I was taking off my coat, Hirasawa reached out her hand. “You can give it to me.”

I handed it over to her, and she took it somewhere around the corner.

“Would you like some slippers?” she asked me.

“Uh, sure,” I answered. Slippers? Oh wow, this place is way above my usual living standards.

She laid a pair of white slippers on the floor, which I put on. They seemed to fit just fine. Hirasawa motioned me to follow her and started walking up the stairs with me right behind her. The upstairs consisted of a combination of both living- and dining area. The kitchen was a little further back. There was a comfy looking green corner sofa in the living area with a coffee table in front of it, and a small TV right across from it.

She pointed at the sofa; “Sit down and make yourself at home, I’ll prepare some tea.”

I just nodded in agreement. I walked to the sofa and took a seat, as Hirasawa headed to the kitchen. The place felt welcoming and safe. I leaned back and glanced up towards the ceiling. So, I had stepped into the house of a girl I barely knew. I didn’t spot a car on the driveway, so I guess her parents aren’t home. Actually, I didn’t know a single thing about her family. I only knew their name, Hirasawa. That’s pretty much it. In my opinion the friendship between two people should be a lot higher before stepping inside another person’s house. But you could hardly call us friends. After all, this is the third time we meet, and it’s been almost a month since the last time. This sure is quite a weird scenario.

I began humming quietly as I kept looking upwards. Indeed, none of my current friends were this hospitable back when we were nothing but school mates. I lowered my gaze towards the kitchen doorway. Maybe that girl had a good upbringing, or something. I don’t know. I don’t know a damn thing, except that her name is Hirasawa Ui, and that she lives in a well-managed house, in a nice neighborhood. I leaned on the armrest, focusing on my thoughts.

My thinking was interrupted by Hirasawa, who emerged from the kitchen with a serving tray in her hands. I fixed my posture as she set the tray down on the coffee table and sat on the floor across the table. As I took a better look at it, I saw a plateful of small sandwiches, a cup of sugar cubes, and three teacups full of tea. Everything in fine looking dishes. Hold on… _Three?_ Three teacups? Is _she_ going to drink two? Am _I_ going to drink two? Are _we_ going to share the third one? Wait, is there someone _else_ in the house?

“Ui, you there? What’s taking so long?” I heard a shout coming from upstairs.

The voice belonged to a girl, maybe the same age as Hirasawa. I tried my best to control my cold sweat and calm my breathing.

“Yes, I’m here. Come and have some tea!” Hirasawa shouted back.

I folded my arms while looking at my own reflection on the TV’s screen. I wonder what’s going to happen. I heard footsteps coming from upstairs, and soon I heard someone walking down the stairs. A girl emerged from the stairway. Her brown hair was tied back into two small… buns, I guess?

“Hey, Ui, wha—," she was about to say, but stopped as soon as her eyes reached me. A small blush gathered on her cheeks. As I was having a staring contest with this rather confused girl, an awkward silence fell in Hirasawa’s living room.

Hirasawa, however, didn’t seem to care about the intense atmosphere; “Jun-chan, I prepared some snacks.”

She handed a teacup over to me. This helped me come back to my senses. I shook my head to sober myself up and took the teacup, still a bit confused. The tea was light green and smelled pleasant. I’m more of a coffee person, but I still won’t refuse tea if it’s offered to me. The unfamiliar girl also seemed to come back to her senses, and walked over to the coffee table, taking a seat in front of it. I didn’t want to be an outcast, so I slid down from the sofa and sat in front of the table.

Hiding my embarrassment, I took a sip of tea, which tasted surprisingly good. The strange girl did the same, and, again, a silence fell over the room.

After a few seconds, the girl talked: “Who—?”

Hirasawa, however, knew what she was about to say, and answered quickly: “He’s an acquaintance of mine. I saw him outside and invited him inside. He’s, uh…”

She just fell silent, a blush of embarrassment emerging on her face. Ah, of course she would be embarrassed. I’ve never told her my name. I’m at her home, and she doesn’t know my name. She knows my dog’s name, but not mine. She doesn’t know anything else about me. I glanced at Hirasawa, who was muttering something to herself. Eh, guess I should fix the situation.

“Sugimoto,” I said as casually as I could. “I’m Sugimoto Eiji, I’m from the north-east part of town.”

Hirasawa seemed to finally calm down, a slight smile appearing on her face once again. “Yeah, he’s Sugimoto-san. We met a few months ago.”

Few months ago? Bah, more like half a year ago. I restrained myself from saying the former out loud, and just nodded.

Hirasawa reached her hand towards the strange girl. “Ah, Sugimoto-san. This is my friend, Suzuki Jun.”

“Hey,” I greeted, nodding to Suzuki.

She answered my greeting with a quick wave of a hand. “Yeah, hi.”

Well, this was awkward… Regardless, knowing her name managed to calm me down somehow. I picked the best looking sandwich from the tray and took a bite out of it. We spent the teatime in a complete silence. No one said a word. Everyone was just sipping their teas and munching on sandwiches.

Hirasawa was sitting right across me. She didn’t really touch the sandwiches and instead was just watching over her guests. The Suzuki girl was sitting on my left, still looking a bit timid. I finished my tea and examined the living room a bit more closely. I saw a wall shelf to my left. On top of it was some plotted plants and a few framed photos. As I eyed one of the photos more closely, I saw Hirasawa, two people who most likely were her parents, and someone who looked a lot like Hirasawa.

“Huh, you got a sister…?” I accidentally asked out loud.

Before I could ask anything else, Hirasawa stood up and walked to the shelf.

She picked up the photo. “Yes, a big sister. She’s having a sleepover at her friend’s house.” She turned to face us with a smile. “That’s why I’m having some friends over myself, so I wouldn’t feel so lonely.” That… sounded a bit sad.

“What about you? Do you have any siblings?” she asked me.

“Uh, yeah. A big brother, who goes to high school, and a little sister, who’s a year younger than me,” I explained, gazing at the ceiling.

She nodded in agreement and put the photo back on the shelf. We both learned something new about each other. It helped me relax a bit and made the atmosphere a bit less awkward. I leaned against the sofa, holding my hands on my lap, and kept staring at the ceiling line.

“Sugimoto-san, are you feeling bored?” I heard Hirasawa asking me.

I lowered my head to get a look at her. “Yeah, that’s why I went for a walk in the first place and came here.” I hastily fixed my posture. “I mean, no offense intended. I’ve been enjoying myself here.”

“That’s nice to hear,” she said, and cocked her head with a warm smile on her face.

The gesture made me blush for some reason. However, I quickly noticed Suzuki and her smug grin. What the hell is she thinking about?

“What’s up with the smile?” I asked her with an unamused expression.

“Oh, nothing,” she answered, wiping the grin off her face.

I kept staring at her for a few seconds, until I returned to staring at the ceiling. It, however, didn’t provide much entertainment, so I lowered my gaze towards the balcony’s sliding glass door, watching the clouded sky behind it.

“So, do you have any plans for the rest of the day?” Hirasawa presented me with a new question.

I kept my eyes on the glass door. “Nah, not really. It’s holiday, after all. Besides, all my friends are out of town.”

“Um, would you like to stay over for the night?” she asked.

I threw my self forward out of shock, almost banging my head against the table. I looked at Hirasawa, who was just sitting there with a shy smile.

“I mean, if it’s okay to you.”


	3. A Sleepover

I was at a loss of words. I couldn’t help but just keep staring at Hirasawa, who had just invited me to spend the night here. I tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to my mind. Instead, I turned my gaze towards Suzuki to see if she again had that smug grin on her face. I was wrong. She seemed shocked, even more so than me. After a few calming breaths, she stood up and led Hirasawa to the kitchen area.

Suzuki wasn’t very good at whispering. I heard her say something about “our plan” and “unwanted extra.” I had a pretty strong suspicion about what she was talking about. Hirasawa started whispering back, but she was far better at it than Suzuki. So, instead of trying to eavesdrop on the conversation, I just leaned back against the sofa, planning my next move. However, the impossible had happened; my head was empty. I didn’t have any kinds of thoughts nor scenarios to think over.

Soon I started hearing Suzuki’s reluctant buts. Every ‘but’ was interrupted by Hirasawa’s whispering. Why the hell is she even trying to convince Suzuki into this? I understand her hesitation, I’d probably be the same if I were in her shoes. After a minute or so, the girls returned to the living room.

Suzuki kept her eyes on the floor. “I… I guess you can stay. I don’t mind.”

I took a careful glance towards Hirasawa. Whatever she just said in there, it had worked. It got me a bit scared, to be honest.

Nevertheless, it was my turn to ask questions, so I turned to face Hirasawa: “Well, uh, what about your parents?”

This was currently the number one concern on my mind, since I didn’t care to get beaten up by this girl’s father.

“Oh, my parents are currently on a work-related vacation in Europe. I don’t think they mind if a friend stays over,” she explained.

What the hell is a ‘work-related vacation’? Does such a thing even exist?

She, however, quickly realized something. “Oh, but, what about _your_ parents?”

“Ah, well, I guess it’ll suit them,” I answered with a bit of uncertainty in my voice. I’ll just tell them that I’m staying over at my friend’s place without mentioning any names. It’ll be fine, I hope.

“I got to drop by at my house to get some stuff and so on.”

“Ah, that’s fine. We’ll be here, so take your time,” Hirasawa replied with a smile.

I felt like this was a good time to make my leave, so I got up and stretched my legs for a bit.

Hirasawa was watching my doings, until she seemed to remember something. “Oh, I almost forgot. Would you mind if we exchanged numbers? We could keep in contact if necessary.”

“Eh, sure, whatever,” I said with a shrug.

My inner self was probably pounding its head against a wall as I was typing the girl’s number on my keypad. Hirasawa accompanied me downstairs, where she handed me my coat back.

As I got by boots back on, she said: “Try to get back before dark, so we’d have more time for activities.”

I just nodded for an answer, waved a hand for goodbye and stepped outside. I took a left turn when I reached the street, and once again sank into my thoughts as I walked back home.

As I was on the first step of my house’s porch, I realized something: not at any point had I outright agreed to staying over at her place. But I guess it was too late to change my mind, since they were waiting for me to return. Well, it’s my own fault, so I’ll suffer the consequences. I let out a sight, kicked the snow off my boots and stepped inside. First one to greet me was Dash. And by greet, I mean it gave me a light bark without moving anywhere from her bed. What a lazy piece of work. As I stepped out of the foyer, my little sister peeked from the kitchen, wearing an apron.

“Ah, you’re back. The dinner’s ready in ten minutes or so,” she said and got back to cooking.

Ah, of course. The car wasn’t in the driveway, so my parents are probably out somewhere. That’s why my sister is preparing the dinner. She’s a good cook though, so I don’t mind. I walked the stairs up and headed to my room.

I grabbed my backpack off the floor and emptied it from its contents. I started stuffing it with different things that I might need; spare clothes, a phone charger, a toothbrush and the brand-new third volume of _Warriors of Lotus_. That should be everything. But I guess I should eat before heading out. Dinner wasn’t ready yet, so I threw the bag on my bed and decided to kill some time by browsing the internet.

After a few moments of reading through my favorite message board, I heard my sister calling: “Dinner’s ready!”

I turned 90 degrees on my computer chair, got up and left the room. As I was walking towards the stairs, I stopped by my brother’s door and pounded on it with my fist.

“Hey, you lazy shit! Come get some grub!” That should wake him up, assuming he is taking a nap in the first place.

The dining area is located at the corner between the living room and the kitchen. I walked through the kitchen to grab myself a plateful of food, which I carried over to the dining table. Teriyaki chicken, splendid! My sister took her apron off and brought some chicken over to Dash. During this I saw my brother lazily walking the stairs down, yawning all the way. Guess he was taking a nap after all. After joining us at the table we all dug in.

“Um, I’m staying over at my friend’s place tonight,” I explained, trying my best to hide my insecurity.

My brother raised his eyebrow. “Oh. At Tadaaki’s? Or Ichiro’s?” He knew that those two were my best friends.

I shook my head. “Nah, at someone else’s.”

My brother murmured something approving and got back to eating. After no more questions popped out, I let out a silent sigh of relief and started stuffing my face.

After finishing our meals, my sister stayed in the kitchen to clean up, while my brother and I headed upstairs, each to their own rooms. So far so good; I didn’t have to explain to my brother about how I’m going to spend the night with two teenage girls. The thought, however, was enough to make me want to scream, so I threw myself on my bed and yelled a sigh into my pillow.

I raised my head and looked out of the window. The sun was starting to set, so I guess it was time to go. From words to deeds, I threw the bag on my back and headed downstairs to the foyer. After getting my winter attire on, I opened the front door.

“I’m off, see you tomorrow.”

My sister waved me goodbye from the kitchen, and my brother murmured something unintelligible from upstairs. I headed out.

I stopped in front of the Hirasawa residence for a moment to scope the place out. The closer I got to the front door, the more uncertain I became. I halted in front of the door to kick the snow off my boots and raised my finger towards the doorbell.

But it didn’t press it.

Instead, it was just hanging loose right next to it.

What the hell am I even doing? I still have the change to go back home and never answer her calls, never return here. I’ll stay at the north-east part of town, I’ll live there, I’ll die there. But… what if not. My whole life I’ve been nothing but an asshole. In my school, I’m known as a violent delinquent. I didn’t really enjoy that reputation, although due to it most people didn’t dare to mess with me.

What if I step through this door? What if Hirasawa becomes my friend alongside Tadaaki and Ichiro? What if some bitch from my class happens to pass by and tell Hirasawa about what kind of a person I am? What if I fuck something up myself, making all of her friends and family hate me? What if I make her cry for reason or another? What if I get angry at her, and… and…?

My thinking was interrupted when the door opened. It was Hirasawa.

“Oh, you’re here. I knew I saw you through the kitchen window,” she said with a smile.

I didn’t dare to open my mouth, since I’d probably blurt one of my stupid thoughts out, so I just nodded and stepped inside. I gave her my coat, took off my boots, slipped my feet into the slippers I had left next to the wall and headed upstairs. Suzuki was sitting on the corner of the sofa, reading some manga.

“Yo,” I greeted her, setting my backpack down next to the sofa’s armrest.

She answered my greeting with a wave and continued on reading. Must be a damn good manga, huh… At that point I noticed the coffee table, which was full of all kinds of foods and goodies. I was so surprised I almost took a step backwards. How the hell did Hirasawa manage to prepare all that? Did Suzuki help? I glanced at the girl, who was just lazily reading her manga. I doubt it. Hirasawa saw me eyeing the table.

“Ah, the dinner’s almost ready. I’ve still got a few things to prepare, so please wait for a moment,” she explained, and headed to the kitchen. So that’s not all? Man…

I took a seat on the sofa and peered out of the balcony door, watching the orange sky. So, I chose this. Instead of returning home, cutting ties with her, and never setting a foot in here, I stepped inside and took the risk of Hirasawa knowing about me. About what kind of a person I really am, about the fact that I beat up anyone who dares to fuck with me.

Blah, I got to get rid of these kinds of thoughts, I don’t want to look depressed. I reached over the armrest to grab a book from my bag. I opened it, resuming reading from where I left off. The reading helped me relax a bit, as I was focusing on the text instead of my thoughts. I leaned back and turned the page.

After reading for a few minutes or so, I felt someone breathing right next to me. I turned my head to my right, and saw Suzuki sitting right next to me, way too close. She was gazing at my book. I was trapped between her and the armrest, I couldn’t escape. A bit uncomfortable situation if you ask me.

“How can you read that much? It’s all words, not even a single illustration,” she asked me.

I glanced at the book, and back at her.

“Uh, of course there isn’t, this is just a regular novel. It’s still pretty good though, so it’s easy to read even without illustrations. It’s not even that much, it’s only…” I paused to check the page count. “…200 pages long. I’m already halfway through it.”

Suzuki kept looking at the book for a while, until she gave me an approving nod and dragged herself back to the sofa’s corner. Finally, some room to breath. I returned to my book.

Few pages later I felt my stomach growling, so I decided to put the book away and stretch my shoulders a bit. I didn’t eat that much at home, since I had a feeling that there’d be more food waiting for me here.

“All done,” I heard Hirasawa announcing.

At some point she had appeared next to the table. I glanced at the coffee table and noticed a few new additions. As if there wasn’t enough food previously… Suzuki finally took her eyes from her manga, setting it down on the sofa and taking a seat at the table. I decided to follow her example, and slid down on the floor, sitting approximately at the same spot as earlier today, facing the balcony door. We thanked for the food and started eating. Suzuki seemed to have a better appetite than Hirasawa and me combined.

Some time passed, and there was nothing but empty plates on the table. It was a very palatable meal, I got to admit. Hirasawa’s good at cooking, maybe even better than my sister. I spread my legs under the table and laid down, my hands crossed on my stomach. As Hirasawa began clearing the table, Suzuki hopped back on the sofa and resumed reading her manga. I placed my arm on my forehead as I watched Hirasawa washing the dishes, but soon felt a vibration in my pocket and heard a familiar message tone. I took my phone out of the pocket and checked the small screen on the lid; Tadaaki had sent me a text message.

Nishikawa Tadaaki, 15 years old. He’s been my best friend since kindergarten. I’ve spent the funniest moments of my short life with him, and he has always been there when I’ve needed him, whether it was a videogame or a situation where someone was strangling me from behind. I opened the lid and started messaging:

 **Tadaaki:** Yo, what’s up in the south? I think I saw some shooting stars last night.

 **Me:** I’m doing good, so far no one has died. How’s Hokkaido? Your balls freezing yet?

 **Tadaaki:** Nah, but there’s a shitload of snow here, much more than back home.

 **Me:** Make a big ass snowman and kill it with a shovel.

 **Tadaaki:** Guess I have to. Any luck with the ladies?

The question got me thinking: how will I explain my current situation to him? I glanced at a reading Suzuki and listened to Hirasawa washing the dishes. I let out a quiet sigh and returned to texting:

 **Me:** Same old same old.

 **Tadaaki:** I suppose we are even, then. How’s Ichiro?

 **Me:** On a trip, just like you.

 **Tadaaki:** So you’re alone?

 **Me:** Yeah, but I’ll manage.

 **Tadaaki:** Awesome. I’ll go build that snowman now, try to stay alive.

I smirked as I closed the phone’s lid and dropped it back into my pocket. I tried to imagine Tadaaki’s reaction if I told him about my current affairs. If I choose my next moves right, or wrong, he’s going to learn about this at some point. I have to prepare myself mentally for all the teasing and witty remarks he will undoubtably lay upon me. But that’s why I hanged out with him; he’s an outspoken person just like me. Most of the time we share the same opinions, and neither cared to sweeten their words. We were _the_ dudes.

Hirasawa returned from the kitchen, seemingly done with the dishes.

“Would you two like some tea? We could also play some board game.”

I glanced over to Suzuki, who was looking back at me. Neither raised any objections, so that’s what we did for the rest of the day; drank some tea and played a board game. As I was sitting there, sipping my tea, watching Suzuki suffer with the ‘move back three steps’-tile and Hirasawa giggling at her reaction, I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

Few hours passed. I was in the middle of reading when I heard Suzuki yawn. I tried to control myself, but to no affair and also yawned. Hirasawa, who was cleaning the table, noticed this.

“Maybe it’s time we went to sleep.”

I checked my watch. Eh, it’s not that late, but I guess I’m tired from all the walking, so I didn’t object. As Hirasawa motioned us to follow her up the stairs, I grabbed my backpack and followed her alongside Suzuki. She directed us to her room, which was a bit smaller than mine, but also a lot tidier. The furniture wasn’t anything special, just a bed, a desk, a small bookshelf, and the usual wardrobe you’d find in any modern house. Only thing standing out was a futon on the floor.

Hirasawa put her hands together. “Okay, here’s the plan: Jun-chan and I will sleep in the bed, while you, Sugimoto-san, will sleep in the futon.”

Suzuki and I glanced at each other, neither raising any objections. Now that I think about it, I could’ve just slept in the living room. On the other hand, she didn’t know me that well, so maybe she wanted to keep me close by just to be safe. But if that’s the case, why invite me over in the first place? Blah, whatever, guess I’ll just go through with this.

“Alright then. Let’s change into pajamas,” Hirasawa declared and walked over to her closet.

I almost chocked on my own spit. “Pajamas, right… Uh, you see, the thing is…”

“You… you don’t have your pajamas with you?” Hirasawa asked, a flush forming on her cheeks.

I kept gazing around the room nervously. “Yeah, I… I don’t even own any.”

“Well, this is a… rather difficult situation. I’d borrow you some, but you’re not…”

“I’m not a girl, yeah, I know,” I completed her sentence.

I kept staring at the floor for a moment, until I turned back to Hirasawa with newly found confidence. “Guess I’ll have to sleep with my clothes on. Don’t worry, I won’t mind.”

It took a few seconds before Hirasawa was completely assured and nodded in agreement. I actually handled this situation pretty well. Who would’ve known?

Suzuki walked over to Hirasawa, turned to face me, and pointed at the door. “Excuse me, would you mind?”

“Ah, of course, sorry,” I said as I walked out of the room and close the door. The upstairs hallway was almost completely dark, save for the moonlight cast by a small window. I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. When I got the “all clear” signal, I stood up and once again stepped into the room.

Both of the girls were in pajamas and had removed their hair ornaments. Suzuki was already between the sheets, but Hirasawa was still standing there. I threw my bag on the floor along with my hoodie, after which I removed my wristwatch, belt, and socks. Maybe I should take my jeans off once I’m in the futon? Bad idea, I’d most likely forget about it and just walk around half-naked. I noticed Hirasawa looking at Suzuki, who was already sound asleep.

“Guess we should also turn in for the night,” she whispered to me. I nodded and slipped inside the futon.

Hirasawa turned the lights off and got in her bed. I was just laying there, staring at the dark ceiling. I think I should feel anxious, maybe a bit excited. However, I didn’t feel a thing. Maybe I’m just too tired. I rolled over to my side and, after a while, drifted off.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t really remember their dreams that well. This, however, was different. I was in the middle of space, or something resembling it. All around me were white dots painted on a black canvas. I also heard some sort of low humming. This lasted for a while, until the humming suddenly got louder. Simultaneously, a green light orb appeared before me, blinding my eyes with its bright glow. The louder the humming got, the brighter the light orb became. That’s when I woke up.

I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. A bit alarmed, I surveyed my surroundings, finally remembering where I was. With a tired sigh I laid back on the futon, glancing at the watch I had placed on the floor. It was already morning, if a bit early. I let out a tired sigh, placing my arm on my forehead. I could hear the two girls sleeping in the bed next to me. I don’t think I’ll be able to get back to sleep, so my only option was just to wait.

Sometime later Hirasawa suddenly sat up, making me flinch. She was just staring at me, probably still half-asleep.

After a bit of staring, she finally seemed to recognize me. “…oh, you’re also here. Good morning.” She yawned and started stretching her back.

I kept watching her from the corner of my eye. So, this was the first time I’ve slept in a girl’s room. Better not to think too much about it. I also sat up, stroking my hair. Hirasawa’s stretching caused Suzuki to woke up, who quickly sat up, causing me to flinch the second time.

She kept staring at me for a while, after which she yawned. “Oh, I forgot you’re also here. Morning.” And I thought I had a bad memory…

After dressing up and brushing my teeth, I headed downstairs to the living room. I glanced over to the kitchen, where Hirasawa was preparing some breakfast. Suzuki was laying on the sofa, seemingly still tired. I sat down at the coffee table and watched how the sky was turning bright blue over time. I was more relaxed than yesterday, since I felt like I’ve gotten to know these two better. To be honest I didn’t mind making new friends, as long as they’re nice. These two have turned out to be just that.

For breakfast we had some toast and orange juice. Nothing too fancy, but I didn’t complain. Everything tastes better when it’s made by someone else, after all. We finished our meals quickly. Hirasawa started washing the dishes, while Suzuki and I returned to reading our books.

A sound downstairs made me take my eyes off the book. Soon after I heard a voice.

“I’m home!”

My heart skipped a beat. _“I’m home”_? Who the hell is that? Wait… it couldn’t be her sister, could it?

I heard someone walking the stairs up. Cold sweat poured down my brow, I breathed heavily. I didn’t dare to look behind me, so I just kept staring at the room’s reflection on the TV screen. The steps got closer and closer. I watched from the reflection as someone appeared from the stairs. I just kept my eyes on the TV, hoping that she wouldn’t notice me. She started walking towards the kitchen, and suddenly stopped for a moment.

“Oh, hi, Jun-chan!”

And then, she just walked past me and continued on walking… for a total of one second.

She suddenly came to a halt, not moving an inch. I turned my gaze to her as she slowly turned to face me. She was staring at me, her confused eyes wide open. She didn’t even blink. Neither did I, as a matter of fact. There was just the awkward silence. From the corner of my eye, I saw Suzuki setting her manga down, seemingly finding this whole situation entertaining.

I was getting kind of desperate, when suddenly Hirasawa appeared from the kitchen. “Ah, sis! Welcome back! Did you like your sleepover with Nodoka?”

This ‘sis’ slowly turned to face Hirasawa and pointed her shaking finger at me. “W-who is t-that p-person…?”

Hirasawa didn’t seem to notice her sister’s gesture. “Oh, he’s Sugimoto-san, he’s a friend of mine. He stayed here over last night.” You don’t care a damn thing about being subtle, do you, gal!?

“Ooooooh…” the girl let out an approving sound, slowly backing away towards the stairs, still keeping her eyes on me. She soon disappeared upstairs, but I could still hear her sneaking upstairs, all the way to what I presumed was her room. The tense situation was over, for now.

“So, uh, that was your sister?” I asked Hirasawa, still trying to recover from what just happened.

She nodded. “Indeed. Her name is Yui.”

I heard some snickering from my right, so I turned to Suzuki, who had an amused grin on her face.

“Yup, that’s Yui, alright. She reacted the same way the first time I visited this house.”

Alright, so this ‘Yui’ was supposedly a bit more distinctive than other people. At least she wasn’t dangerous, although you’d never know.

“That so…?” I muttered under my breath, trying to return to my book. Hirasawa, however, interrupted me.

“Sugimoto-san, have you enjoyed yourself here so far?”

I raised my gaze from the book. “Uh, well… yeah, sure, I have,” I stuttered, nodding just in case she didn’t understand my speech. She seemed glad and sat on the sofa between Suzuki and me.

I glanced over at the duo. Hirasawa has been the kindest non-relative person I’ve ever met. She’s really considerate and hospitable. She took me under her roof even though she didn’t know my name yet. Suzuki, also, agreed to sleep in the same room with a guy she met just a moment ago. These two were really something else. Whatever happens, I hope they’ll never learn about what kind of a person I really am.

A few hours passed, and it was time for me to head home. Hirasawa escorted me to the foyer, where I thanked her for the hospitability and said my goodbyes. As I was walking along the road, I couldn’t help but notice how fresh the air felt. I grabbed my phone, examining the freshly added phone number in my contact list. Guess I have a new friend now, huh. I’ve already met both her friend and sister and slept at her house. Well, that was quick. For example, it took some years before Tadaaki invited me for a sleepover.

I kept in contact with Hirasawa through text messages, since I didn’t really feel like visiting her. The messages started out as one-sentence long greetings, but soon evolved into outright conversations. I wasn’t even sure why I was texting with her, I just felt like doing it.

Before I knew it, the winter holidays were over, and we’d have to go back to school. I only realized the day before the school would resume and pounded my head against my pillow out of frustration.


	4. School Day

I woke up to a beeping sound. It was the most annoying beeping of them all: an alarm clock. It kept getting louder and louder, as I was laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. As I was stretching, the beeping just went on. I started to get irritated.

“Shut the hell up already,” I muttered to my phone as I set the alarm off.

My morning routines were as followed: I got out of the bed, opened the curtains, got dressed in my gakuran, pretended to make my bed, and headed downstairs. As I was on the first step, I saw my sister coming out of her room, seemingly as tired as I was. My brother was watching TV in the living room, wearing his own school uniform. Judging from the inviting aroma, he had made some coffee, so I headed to the kitchen to get some. I needed it.

Our mother goes to work very early in the morning, so we have to make our own breakfast. Opening the fridge and using the toaster isn’t really rocket science, so we’ll manage. I made myself some toast and gobbled it up, at the same time glancing at the TV. As usual, it didn’t broadcast anything interesting.

Quarter of an hour passed, and it was time for my sister and I to go to school. My brother had left a bit earlier, since his high school was located a bit further away than our junior high. After getting our winter attire on, we stepped out of the house and began walking, side by side. This, however, lasted only for a few minutes, until I told my sister to go on ahead. You see, I was at the usual spot where I usually meet up with my friends.

A moment later, I saw a familiar duo approaching, both chuckling while pushing each other.

“Quit fucking around, you clowns. We’re supposed to be responsible young men!” I ordered them sarcastically.

After a bit of laughing, we began heading to the school.

Tadaaki still hadn’t gotten a new winter coat. Instead, he was wearing two hoodies on top of each other. Ichiro, on the other hand, was the only one of us who wore a beanie, probably due to his buzz cut.

Ah, yes, Makino Ichiro. We met him at the beginning of junior high. After a certain event, he began hanging out with us, and he’s been our friend ever since. Sure, he can be a bit immature at times, but I’m not one to judge.

Soon we stood in front of a three-story building. Its red coat of paint had become so faded it almost looked pink. Only three more months in this piece of shit, and we’d be free. I mean, we’d have to go high school after this, but it can’t be worse that Yukinokawa Junior High. It was pretty much the only junior high in the north-east part of the town.

As we walked towards the front doors, some students on the schoolyard turned around to glare at us. Well, that’s what you get for being an infamous group of delinquents, I guess. This had lasted for three whole years, so we’ve learned to ignore them. We pushed ourselves through the crowd and headed to our classroom. Some of our classmates were already in the class, chatting with each other. We walked to the back of the class, where our seats were, and grouped up around Ichiro’s desk, continuing on talking about whatever came to mind.

I felt my pocket vibrate. I ignored it, but it kept going on, meaning that it wasn’t a message, but a phone call. I didn’t have a ringtone, so it always takes a while to notice if someone’s calling me. I grabbed my phone, checking the small screen on the lid: Hirasawa was calling me. This early in the morning? I looked at my friends, who didn’t seem to care about my phone, and continued on talking. Huh, guess I’ll answer it.

I pulled my chair back a bit, and answered the call: “Yeah?”

“Good morning, Sugimoto-san. Uh, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Hirasawa asked.

I scratched my head and glanced at the classroom’s wall clock. “Nah, not at all. So, uh, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering if you’d like to meet up with Jun-chan and I after school. We’d do something fun.”

I tried my best not to choke and kept glancing around nervously. After making sure that no one was hearing our conversation, I took a few calming breaths.

“Yeah, sure. Although, if I remember correctly, my school day ends a bit later than yours,” I answered, remembering our text messages.

Hirasawa made an approving sound. “Ah, that’s fine, we’ll wait for you. I’ll call you later. Have a nice day!”

“Yeah, bye, Hirasawa-san,” I said before ending the call.

No detailed plans, huh? Just ‘hanging out after school’? Oh well, good thing I didn’t have plans for the rest of the day. I stuffed the phone back into my pocket with a sigh. However, it was quiet. I turned to face my friends, who were just staring at me.

“The hell are you two looking at?” I asked them, unamused.

The duo glanced at each other, and Ichiro decided to ask: “Who the hell’s _Hirasawa_?”

I shrugged, raising an eyebrow. “What’s it to you?”

“Nah, nothing. We just thought that you were too scared to make new friends,” Tadaaki quipped with a grin.

I clicked my tongue. “Go fuck yourselves. Sheesh, not a bit of privacy around here…”

Our chat was interrupted when our homeroom teacher stepped into the class. Time to begin the first school day of the year.

Seven hours doesn’t really feel that long when you spend most of your time looking out of the window. I didn’t even get into any fights today, not even an argument. Maybe it’s for the best; I don’t want to get expelled on the last semester. After sitting through the last homeroom, we packed our stuff and left the classroom.

Ichiro stretched his back as we walked along the corridor. “Blarg! I’m sick of the homerooms!”

Tadaaki glanced at him. “Me too, man, but we can’t really slack off as much as before, if we want to get into the nearby high school.”

I just kept quiet and listened to their talking as we walked the stairs down. When we got to the shoe lockers, I noticed a few students staring out of the window towards the school’s yard. I didn’t pay them any mind, until I heard one of them talk.

“Girls from another school?”

Could it be…? No, no, it can’t be. I got my boots on, waited for my friends to do the same, and followed them out through the doors. As we walked along the pavement, I kept looking at my side, trying to stay hidden behind the duo. But why? It’s not like _they’d_ be here or anythi—

“Ah, Sugimoto-san! Over here!”

Tadaaki and Ichiro halted, as did I. A dozen of students on the schoolyard turned to face the excited voice. After a few seconds of hesitation, I decided to do the same.

Hirasawa and Suzuki were standing in front of the school, both dressed in their school uniforms. Hirasawa was waving at me, turning the onlookers’ attention towards me. Tadaaki and Ichiro turned to look at me, both extraordinarily confused. I kept gazing around the yard nervously for a few seconds and sighed.

“Oh for the love of…” I muttered under my breath and walked past my friends towards the girls.

Hirasawa didn’t seem to notice what was going on at all. She was just standing there with a smile on her face, not a worry in the world. Suzuki, on the other hand, seemed to notice the dozens of glares directed at us. I stared Hirasawa straight into her eyes to give a sign that now would be a good moment to throw the smoke bomb and make a hasty retreat to the getaway car. It became clear that she didn’t have any telepathic skills.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked them in a low voice.

Hirasawa didn’t seem to understand the situation. “Huh? You told me that you’d be able to meet up after school, right?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean for you two to…” I cut my sentence short and sighed. “You know what, whatever. But, how did you even know what school I go to?”

“You told me yourself in your messages, don’t you remember?” Hirasawa answered, cocking her head confusedly.

The god damn text messages. Guess I accidentally told her some personal information in them. Ah well, this is what I get for being too careless. Suzuki leaned towards me and kept nudging her head to the side nervously. I reckoned she wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. I didn’t have anything against that idea. I took one last glance at the students behind me and started walking.

I beckoned the girls to follow me. “Well, whatever. Let’s get moving.”

As we walked through the neighborhood, I couldn’t help but think about what might happen tomorrow. That school is full of gossiping little shitheads, and since at least third of the school knew me… Ugh, what a mess. If someone dares to fuck with me over this, I’ll just beat them senseless. Hell, I’ll fight the whole damn school if I have to.

I glanced at my clothes and turned to face the girls. “Let’s stop by at my place, I’ll get changed.”

The girls nodded for an answer.

Two-story building, colored dark brown with white edges, surrounded by similar houses. That’s my home, alright. The girls followed me as I stepped on the porch and reached for the door handle. I paused for a split second to think: my parents were at work, my brother had some club activities, and my sister said she’d go to her friend’s place after school, meaning the house was empty, which suited me just fine. I opened the door and stepped inside.

I waited for the girls to get inside before closing the door. They were looking around for a bit, until their eyes caught something. It was Dash, who was curiously peeking around the corner. As she saw the two girls in the foyer, she decided to come closer to investigate. During this, I had taken off my boots and was just about to head to the stairs, when I saw Suzuki looking a bit scared.

“Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite.”

“Y-yeah, I’m just more of a cat person,” she said, laughing embarrassingly.

I snickered quietly as I reached the stairs and started heading up.

“Don’t bother taking your coats off, this won’t take long.”

As I got into my room, I threw my bag on the bed, got rid of the gakuran and threw on some jeans and the red hoodie. I checked myself from a mirror hanging on the inside of the closet door. A lot comfier.

However, as I was looking at my reflection, I became uncertain. I could just tell them to get the fuck out of here, and never come back. But why? Why was I so unsure about this? Was I scared of them finding out about my true personality? Ah, hell, I’ve already thought this trough. Maybe I could be a nice person for a change instead of a piece of shit delinquent. Just maybe…

“Ah, fuck it all…” I muttered tiredly, leaning against the closet door.

I heard a knock on the door, and Hirasawa speaking: “Sugimoto-san? Are you there?”

“Huh…? Ah, yeah, I’m here,” I answered, feeling a bit dazed.

The door opened, and both Hirasawa and Suzuki peeked inside. After checking that I had my pants on, they walked in. They both looked worried.

“Uh, are you alright?” Hirasawa asked.

I glanced at the mirror to see if there was something on my face. “Huh? Y-yeah, why?”

“It’s just that… you took kind of long, so, we decided to check on you.”

Hold on a minute, just how long was I staring at my own reflection just now? Ugh, anyway, better get moving. I don’t want to make these two worry about me, they’re too kind. I headed downstairs, and the girls followed right behind me.

As we stepped out of the house, I closed the front door and turned to face the girls.

Hirasawa put her hands together. “So, where do you want to go?”

“Hold on, you didn’t have anything planned?” Suzuki asked, confused.

They both turned to face me. I spread my arms.

“Don’t ask me!”

The girl both let out a sigh. I crossed my arms and leaned back against the porch’s railing. So, no one had any ideas, and we were here for nothing?

However, Hirasawa soon brightened up. “Let’s go to my house, then. We can have some snacks.”

Suzuki and I looked at each other, then nodded to Hirasawa, since neither of us had any better ideas. Personally, I didn’t know this town that well, even though I’ve lived here almost my whole life. It’s just that I always spend my time in this north-eastern neighborhood, only rarely venturing elsewhere. Blah, I should explore this town more often.

After half an hour of walking we reached the Hirasawa residence. I still didn’t see a car on the driveway. Hell, how many ‘work-related vacations’ does her parents take? I followed the girls inside.

“I’m home!” Hirasawa shouted.

“Welcome back!” a familiar voice answered.

Ah, that must be the big sis… big sis what-was-her-name… Yui? Yeah, Big Sis Yui. What a mouthful, I’ll just call her Yui.

As we got upstairs, I noticed two girls sitting at the coffee table, one of them being Yui. As we got closer, I saw a pair of workbooks and notebooks on the table. Guess they were doing their homework.

Yui raised her head, smilingly greeting us: “Hey, Ui! Hey, Jun-chan! Heyyyyyy, uh…”

As she got to me, her voice got lower and her smile was gone. Was she actually _that_ scared of me?

“…Sugimoto, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I answered, a bit nervous.

The smile returned to her face. “Ah, of course! Hey, Sugimoto-kun!”

So she just forgot my name for a moment… And I guess now I’m Sugimoto- _kun_ to her. Eh, whatever makes her happy. The other girl at the table raised her eyes from her notebook and looked at me. She was wearing a pair of red glasses, which made her look like some sort of a student council member. I really wasn’t feeling like having another staring contest, so I decided to introduce myself.

“Uh, hi. I’m Sugimoto.”

The girl smiled at me, adjusting her glasses. “I’m Manabe, Manabe Nodoka.”

Her way of speaking sounded mature, maybe she’s in the student council after all? I think I’ve heard that name before… ah, Yui was having a sleepover at her place some time ago.

“Nodoka-chan, help me with this!” Yui moaned, pointing at the first math problem on the page. Looks like these two were busy. I turned back to my companions, who were waiting for me in front of the stairs, and followed them up. We headed to Hirasawa’s room.

“Wait here, I’ll make us some tea,” she said before leaving the room.

Suzuki jumped on the bed, spreading her arms, and sighed into the pillow. I sat on the edge of the bed, examining Hirasawa’s bookshelf. After a few seconds, Suzuki rolled over to her side and looked at me.

“What exactly happened at your school?” she asked.

I raised my gaze, looking straight forward. I wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Were you ashamed that we came to pick you up? Be honest,” Suzuki said.

I looked downwards, stroking my chin. “Yeah, well… I don’t think many would believe if I told them that we’re just friends.”

I turned to face Suzuki. The more she processed my words, the redder her face became.

“S-so, they think that… that we’re your…”

I cut her off: “Yeah, something like that. But it’s not a big deal, don’t worry about it.”

“ _Not a big deal_? What about all those onlookers? It seemed like a huge deal to me,” she said.

I turned my gaze upwards, falling down on the bed, my head right next to Suzuki’s feet. Since she was wearing a skirt, I decided to turn my head the other way.

“…you see, I have, uh, a reputation of some kind. At least half of my school knows about me.”

Suzuki just stayed quiet. I took her silence as a sign to continue: “So, when something like this happens, especially to the likes of me, it suddenly becomes a huge fu— freaking event. So big, that they have the right to stare and gossip about it.”

I noticed the annoyance in my voice, so I tried to calm down a bit.

“…fortunately, I’ll get out of that place soon.”

Suzuki seemed to understand what I was talking about. I wasn’t sure if it was for good or bad, but I didn’t care much at that time.

I wasn’t sure if she were about to say anything else, since at that moment Hirasawa came back, wearing an apron over her school uniform.

“Sis and Nodoka-chan are done with their homework, so now we can use the living room. Let’s eat there.”

When I got downstairs, I didn’t see the spectacle-headed girl anywhere. She must’ve headed home. Yui, though, was still sitting at the table, staring intensively at a platter of cookies in front of her. Besides the platter, the table also held a plateful of sandwiches, and cups of tea. I went to sit at my usual spot, facing the balcony door. I don’t even know why I liked that spot so much. As Hirasawa gave us the permission to dig in, Yui took her chance and grabbed a fistful of cookies from the platter, earning herself some scolds from her younger sister, and a hearty laugh from me.

Never in my life have I felt myself as accepted as now. I’ve received a warm reception at the Hirasawa residence. However, my smile soon turned into a frown, as I was thinking about the decision I had to make half a year ago: to be a good person and help someone in need, or just leave them on their own. Though, anyone would’ve helped her. Why did it have to be me? Was this some kind of a trial? Was Hirasawa actually a member of some kind of a secret group, who are testing me? God, I got to stop watching so many shitty movies.

“What’re you thinking about?” Suzuki asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I was leaning against the couch, my hands behind my head. “Life, future… just the usual.”

As I glanced around, I noticed that Yui had disappeared somewhere without me noticing, but Hirasawa was still sitting at the table, right across from me. I took a sip out of my tea, which had cooled off a bit. Suzuki gobbled up the rest of her sandwich, and laid down on the floor.

“So, what do you do on your free time?” Hirasawa asked me to spark a conversation.

I actually had to think about my answer for a few seconds.

“I hang out with my friends, play some videogames, go out for walks… so, nothing special, really.”

This didn’t seem to be enough for her; “Well, do you have any hobbies? For example, do you play any instrument?”

“Uh, actually, yes. I play acoustic guitar every now and then. At school, I mean. I don’t own one myself.”

Indeed, at the beginning of junior high, I started practicing the guitar just for fun. I know the basics, but not much else, since it’s not a constant hobby or anything.

Hirasawa gave me an approving nod, and the snack time continued on.

Half an hour later it was time for me to head home. Hirasawa escorted me to foyer, where I got my winter attire on. As I was reaching for the door handle, I heard her speaking.

“Sugimoto-san?”

I turned around to look at her, and was met with a warm smile.

“Come visit us anytime you want.”

I got a bit embarrassed for a moment, but soon shaped up. I nodded with a smile.

“Sure.”


	5. Junior High Graduation

Before I knew it, winter was over. The snow melt, weather got warmer and the sun shined. No one in my school dared to mention anything about Hirasawa nor Suzuki, since they most likely knew I wouldn’t take it too kindly. Tadaaki and Ichiro were the only ones who asked me about them, but I always answered the same way: they’re just some people I knew. Soon, the questions settled down, and life went on as normal. I’ve visited the Hirasawa residence every now and then when I’ve had nothing better to do, and kept in contact with Hirasawa through phone.

Before long came March, and it was our last week in junior high. I picked up my buddies from the usual place, and headed to school. For some reason I felt a bit wistful towards the Yukinokawa Junior High. It held a lot of memories and soon I’d have to leave it behind. The last week of the junior high is usually pretty relaxed, so we had a lot of free time. We walked around the school, pointing at different places, and telling the memories attached to them. The time we slipped into the gym between classes to mess around, and the time we accidentally broke the hallway light, but we were never caught.

As the lunch break came by, we sneaked on the rooftop through service stairs, which was of course prohibited. We sat far from the edge so we wouldn’t get caught, watching the surrounding scenery, and enjoying our lunch. We still had a lot in front of us, a lot to learn, a lot to experience. After finishing our meals, we stayed on the rooftop for a while longer.

“Call me stupid, but… I’ll miss this place,” Ichiro muttered.

Tadaaki nodded. “I get what you’re saying.”

I glanced at them, and back at the neighborhood surrounding the school. “It’s just weird that a few months ago I couldn’t wait to get out of this shithole. But now, when that day is so close…”

My sentence got cut short due to the bell. We hastily got down from the roof before anyone could caught us.

A few days later I found myself from the school hall, receiving a certificate which stated that I’ve survived through junior high. So, that’s it, then. Just the high school left, and I’m free. My friends and I applied to the same high school, the one nearest to us, and the same that my brother goes to. Sure, it might not be the greatest, but not the worst either.

The next day I was napping on my bed, when my phone rang. It took me a while to realize this, since I still didn’t have a ringtone. But when I did realize it, I hastily got out of bed, falling on the floor. I didn’t have the strength to get back up, so I crawled towards my desk, and reached for the phone on top of it. As I got a hold of it, I slumped back on the ground and answered the call, a bit sleepy.

“…yeah?”

“Oh, uh, I hope I didn’t call you at a bad time,” the familiar voice in the phone said. It was Hirasawa.

I checked my watch, which told me it was afternoon.

“Oh, no, not at all,” I muttered into the phone, and sat up, leaning against my desk.

I heard Hirasawa sigh out of relief. “Good. My sis, Yui, graduated from junior high yesterday. If I’m correct, so did you?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said, eyeing the certificate in my bookshelf.

“Well, we were thinking about having a small graduation party. We’d go out to do something fun,” she said.

“I see, and you guys want me to come with you? Who else is coming?” I asked, finally getting on my feet.

“Exactly. Besides my sis and I, Jun-chan and Nodoka-chan are also coming,” she told me.

Nodoka… ah, that spectacle-headed girl. Well, I didn’t really have anything planned, and my family already held me a small ‘graduation party’ yesterday.

“Alright, fine by me.”

“Great! I’ll call you later, bye!” she said, and the call ended.

Guess I’ll have something to do tomorrow. Well, it always beats just sitting at home and doing nothing. I didn’t really feel like continuing on my nap, so I headed downstairs to make myself some coffee.

The next day I was walking through the neighborhood, my destination being the Hirasawa residence. As I walked with my hands in my hoodie’s pockets, I twiddled with a 5000 yen note I got from my mom when I told her about my plans for today. I soon got to the house, and ringed the doorbell. Hirasawa opened the door and directed me upstairs, where I saw Yui sitting at the coffee table, watching TV. She had a bowl of grapes in front of her.

“Oh, hi, Sugimoto-kun,” she greeted me, and turned her attention back to the TV.

I smirked as I took a seat right behind her on the sofa, and joined her at watching TV, which was showing a documentary about some rainforest. Yui kept eating her grapes, and from time to time threw one over her shoulder to give it to me. It always took me by surprise, but I somehow managed to catch every single grape. Doorbell rang, and soon Suzuki and the spectacle-headed girl arrived in the living room.

“Hi, Jun-chan, Nodoka-chan!” Yui greeted them.

I only waved my hand for a greeting, since I was too focused on watching the TV. Man, those orangutans sure are jolly creatures, huh. However, Suzuki walked behind me and slapped her hands on my shoulders, which made me flinch a bit.

“Hello~, Sugimoto-san? You awake?”

I turned to look at her. “Well hello there, Suzuki. Craving for attention, huh?”

She gave me a grin as she took her hands off my shoulders. I looked around for a bit, and turned to Hirasawa.

“I think everyone’s here?”

She seemed to realize it. "Oh, you’re right. Guess we should get going.”

As she shut the TV, Yui slumped on the table.

“Ui~, I was watching that,” she whined.

“I know, but we’re supposed to head out to celebrate your graduation,” Hirasawa said to her.

Yui jumped on her feet. “Oh, you’re right! Let’s go!”

As we walked towards the downtown, I decided to hold the rear of the group, since I still didn’t know this town too well. It also gave me an opportunity to look at my surroundings a bit, though only thing that caught my eye was a park not too far from the Hirasawa residence. It had a pond in the middle of it, which was a bit hard to spot due to all the trees surrounding it. It peaked my interest, so I tried my best to memorize its location.

The day went a lot better that I had anticipated. I saw a lot of new and interesting places. First we roamed around the shopping district for a bit. Nothing really caught my eye, but I still ended up buying a phone charm resembling a blue flower. Hirasawa said that it really matched me, which I really didn’t understand, since I was wearing my red hoodie.

After this we moved to a shopping mall to buy some new clothes. I didn’t feel like being in a women’s clothes shop, so I told them I’d look around the mall a bit. As I roamed around, I found a music shop in the mall’s basement floor, which I checked out. If I’m ever going to buy a guitar, I’d buy it here. I decided to head back to the clothes shop, where Yui excitedly showed me some of her new clothes. They actually looked nice. Suzuki, apparently, had bought herself a dress, but didn’t really want to show it. What’s the point of buying clothes if you’re just going to keep them hidden?

We were sitting at the corner table of the local burger joint as the sun was starting to turn orange.

“What a fun day,” Yui said as she was stretching her back.

Hirasawa nodded. “It sure was. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.”

The rest of us agreed on having fun today. And I actually did have fun. After finishing our burgers, we decided to head home. I walked with the rest of the group for a while. Soon we came to a point where the rest of the group would cross the bridge over a river, while I’d continue on alongside the said river. As we got to the bridge, I thanked them for inviting me, and both Hirasawa and Yui thanked _me_ for coming in the first place. We said our goodbyes, and I started heading home.

I put my hands in my pockets and glanced at the orange sky as I walked. I really enjoyed myself today. Maybe I should arrange something like this with Tadaaki and Ichiro. I, however, snickered at the thought. There’s no way I’d ever arrange anything. Not now, not ever. I’ll just invite them over to my place to eat some junk food and play video games. Or maybe I’ll ask Tadaaki if he could arrange some “drinks” for us, since it’s a graduation party, after all. Graduation, huh. It means the end of the junior high, which in turn means the beginning of high school. We still have a lot of time to mess around. I’m looking forward to it.


	6. Beginning High School

I can’t remember what just happened. It was dark, I felt like I was floating in the air. As I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by water. Looking down, I saw nothing but darkness. Looking up, I saw light shining on the water’s surface. But suddenly, I started to drown. I couldn’t breathe, I felt anxious. I was kicking my feet, trying to swim to the surface. The water was thick, almost as if I were swimming in honey. Against all odds I managed to get to the surface. The light blinded me as I was gasping for air. Soon, however, the light moved away, as if it was nothing but a lamp.

As I looked around, I noticed the body of water I was currently in was actually a circular pool of some kind, coped with stone tiles. I climbed out of the pool, noticing that my clothes weren’t soaked at all. I looked around for a bit more, and found the light that blinded me earlier. Actually, it was a light orb. A _green_ light orb. I started walking towards it. My walking turned into a jog, and soon I found myself sprinting as fast as I could. The green light orb, however, wasn’t getting any closer. Instead, it let out a flash of light, blinding me completely.

I opened my eyes, and saw my room’s ceiling. So it was just a dream. My awakening was caused by someone opening the curtains. I rolled over to my side and closed my eyes, trying to get back to sleep. However, someone started shaking me. At first I thought it might’ve been my sister or one of my parents. To my surprise, it was actually my big brother.

“Wake up, man. You don’t want to be late on the first day.”

Why the hell did my brother care so much about me being late? I raised my head and noticed my school uniform hanging from the closet’s handle. Ah, it’s my first day at high school. No wonder my brother bothered to wake me up. I sat on the edge of my bed and stretched a bit, while my brother left the room.

“Get dressed up and come downstairs,” he said before closing the door.

I scratched my head as I walked over to the school uniform. It consisted of navy blue jacket, white shirt, gray pants, and a red tie. Pretty basic, in other words. I got dressed up, and admired my new uniform for a bit, before heading downstairs. I grabbed myself a cup of coffee, and joined my brother at the living room couch.

“So, you’re a senior now, right?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Yup, and you’re a freshie.”

After noticing my confused expression, he snickered and explained: “Freshie means freshman.”

“Oh, wow. You came up with that all by yourself?” I muttered unamused, and sipped my coffee.

One light breakfast later, I grabbed my new schoolbag, and we were ready to head off. I felt a bit excited as we walked together towards the high school. I glanced at my brother, who didn’t care to button up his shirt and had tucked his school bag under his armpit.

Sugimoto Daichi, 17 years old. He’s my big brother now and forever, no matter whether I like it or not. He can be a bit stubborn at times, but I’ve got used to it. He’s the only one I’ve never beaten in a fight. After all, he’s taller and more fit than me. He’s also skilled at sports, which would be hard to believe, since he’s just lazing around during his free time.

The distance from my home to the high school was a bit under two kilometers. The amount of other students grew the closer we got. Soon I recognized two dudes from the group of students: Tadaaki and Ichiro. I waved my brother goodbye, ran up to the duo, and we continued on to the school.

Soon we stood in front of Kasumimashita High School. Its front yard hard stone tile paths going here and there, edged with bushes and other kinds of greenery, with a fountain in the middle of it. There also were some trees and benches here and there. The gray building itself resembled a crooked letter H from above, with the middle part being two stories tall and the rest being three. We looked around in awe as we walked towards the school’s main doors.

We were directed into the school’s auditorium, which was located right across from the main doors. I spent the next 20 minutes listening to the principal’s monologue about the new school year and so on. I already felt like taking a nap. After the speech, we walked to the second floor of the east wing, where our classroom was located. The room was filled with rows of decades-old desks, so it was nothing special, really. My desk was located in the middle of the window row. I got tired of teacher’s speech almost instantly, and only pretended to listen while gazing out of the window.

After the classes ended, my friends and I decided to explore the school a bit. The school’s lobby, however, was filled with students handing out flyers and outright begging the other freshmen to join their clubs. We tried to ignore them, since there’s no way we’d join any clubs. We, however, got swarmed. I thought I was about to die, when a hand appeared from amongst the students, grabbing my sleeve, and pulled me out to safety, Tadaaki and Ichiro following right behind me.

“You poor thing, they’ll eat you alive out there,” my brother Daichi said as he let go of my sleeve.

I folded my arms. “Let me guess: you also want us to join some club, right?”

Daichi scratched the back of his head and chuckled. “Well, yeah. But this club is a lot different than others. No need for athletic nor musical skills. Follow me, and I’ll show you.”

My friends and I looked at each other, and decided to go along with my brother. He led us to the back of the west wing, and opened a small door. Behind it were stairs leading down.

“A basement? Are we even allowed to go there?” I asked.

“Just trust me,” my brother answered, and started walking down the stairs.

The stairs led to a dimly lit hallway, filled with doors leading to storage rooms and whatnot. My brother walked to the end of the hallway and opened the door on the right. As we peeked inside, we were left open-mouthed; our eyes were met with a cozy looking room, with wooden floor and walls painted dark brown. One of the many small windows located near the ceiling was open, making the room’s air a lot fresher than back in hallway.

Three ragged couches sat in the middle of the room, arranged around a coffee table. Right across from it was a large CRT TV, accompanied by numerous old game consoles and VCR players. Right next to it was a huge shelf, holding different kinds of books, boxes, CD cases and whatnot. There also was a stereo system, which was currently blasting a rock song from 90’s. In the back of the room was a small kitchen of some kind, with a fridge and everything, and next to it a table and some chairs. This fucking place _rocked!_

There was one student sitting at the table, and two others laying on the couches. They didn’t seem to pay any mind when my brother opened the door. However, they jumped right on their feet when they saw us.

“Daichi, you brought us some freshies!” one of the students shouted.

“The future of the club is ensured!” another one whooped, throwing his hands in the air.

We stepped inside, taking a closer look around. I turned to my brother.

“So, what’s—”

“Coffee Club,” my brother answered, cutting my sentence short.

“This is a Coffee Club. As the name states, we drink coffee and hang out here.”

The student, who was sitting at the table, stepped forward, adjusting his glasses.

He told us a story: “Coffee Club was founded by an unknown student approximately seven or eight years ago, his name being lost in history. He was exploring around the school’s basement, when he happened to find this room. It was used as a temporary staffroom a long time ago when the school building was being renovated. Due to his discovery, he got an idea and decided to form a club. Obviously, ‘Hanging out Club’ wouldn’t be accepted, he decided to make it a Coffee Club, since he liked coffee. As the time went on, this student decided to actually make the club more coffee orientated, and started reviewing different kinds of coffees and coffee recipes.”

He pointed at a single, blue notebook laying in the shelf. Assuming it actually is eight years old, it’s in surprisingly good condition.

“So, now you know that this club is about drinking coffee and hanging out. What do you say, you want to join?” he asked us.

All the other club members, my brother included, leaned towards us. My friends and I glanced at each other, and nodded. We didn’t know anything better than hanging out. And coffee. We liked coffee.


	7. Teatime At Park

It’s been couple of weeks since the high school started. Everyday, after the classes ended, we headed to the school’s basement to spend some time. Sometimes, my brother and his friends were so noble, that they let us to have the club room to ourselves for the day. This time was the same. I opened the room’s door, noticing Tadaaki and Ichiro sitting on a couch. Both had cups of steaming coffee in their hands, and Ichiro was reading the Founder’s notebook.

“Hey, what took you so long?” Tadaaki asked.

I showed him the guitar case I was carrying. “I went to borrow this from the music classroom.”

I laid the guitar case against the wall, and walked over to the kitchen area to get myself a cup of coffee. However, as I was about to carry it over to the couch, I felt my phone ringing in my pocket. Hirasawa was calling me. I haven’t visited her since the graduation party, but I’ve kept in contact with her through the phone. For example, couple of days ago she told me about how her sister found her way into some music club. I glanced at my friends, who currently were talking about one of the recipes in Founder’s notebook. I decided to stay in the kitchen area to answer the call.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hi, how are you doing?” Hirasawa asked, her tone being as friendly as ever.

“Just fine, actually. I’m currently at the club room,” I said, and took a sip out of my coffee.

“Nice to hear. It was a Coffee Club, right?” she asked.

I nodded to myself. “Yup. Ever heard of _Moccachino_? It rocks, I tell you!”

I heard her giggling at my overenthusiasm. “By the way, I haven’t seen you in a while. Would you like to do something tomorrow?”

She was right, we haven’t met in some time. And tomorrow was Saturday. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to hang out with her.

“Sure, sounds good. I’ll call you tomorrow at noon.”

“Alright, then! See you tomorrow, bye!” she said, and ended the call.

I kept staring at my phone for a few seconds, until I slipped it back into my pocket and sipped my coffee. I brought it over to the coffee table, where I set it down, and walked to the guitar case. I laid it on the floor, opening the latches, and taking out the steel string acoustic guitar it was carrying. It was a bit worn, but it still worked, which was the only thing I cared about. I sat on the couch, made sure the guitar was in tune, and started playing. The song was simple, but it still sounded good. To my ear, at least. My friends kept quiet during my playing, so maybe they thought so too.

The song was soon over, the silence following it feeling rather empty. However, Ichiro remembered something, and started digging his bag.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I brought that movie I told you guys about.”

We spent the afternoon watching some generic 80’s movie about some street punk, who happens to find a letter signed by the government and uncovers a major fraud in the process. To be honest, it was actually pretty good. The club room was already filled with stuff from 80’s and 90’s; movies, music, games, you name it. So, we decided to respect it, and spend our time with stuff from the past millennium. So far it’s been nothing but awesome.

Soon, it was Saturday. I was staring at my ceiling with half-open eyes, having just woken up. I laid there for a while, and finally got up. I threw some pants on, and moseyed down the stairs. The first thing to caught my attention was a group of girls sitting in the living room. Ah, my sister has some friends over.

“Morning,” I muttered to her, heading to the kitchen.

My sister turned around to glare at me, seemingly annoyed. “ _Morning?_ It’s already noon, just so you know.”

I snickered, still a bit tired, and started making myself some coffee. However, as I snapped the coffeemaker on, something clicked in my mind. Noon… Ah, I was supposed to call Hirasawa. I headed back upstairs to my room, where I got completely dressed up, with my red hoodie and all, and returned to the kitchen to get my coffee. I leaned against the fridge, sipping my coffee, and looking at my phone. After hesitating for a few seconds, I sighed and called Hirasawa.

“Hey, I’m available now.”

“Great. Uh, I was thinking that we could have a picnic, since the weather’s so nice at the moment,” she told me. “We could go to a park near my home.”

After thinking for a second, I remembered something: “The one with a pond?”

“Yes, that’s it!”

“Alright then, I’ll be there in about half an hour,” I said, sipping my coffee.

“Okay, see you then!” she said, and we ended the call.

Guess I should get going. I set my phone down on the counter, gulped the rest of my coffee down, and headed to foyer to get my sneakers on, and headed out. As I looked upwards, I was met with a clear sky. The weather was pretty nice, just as she said. I began walking.

It took me a moment to recall the way to the park. After finally managing to find it, I started venturing along its paved walkway, heading deeper into the park. Sun’s beams flickered amongst the trees’ branches, the wind blowing ever so slightly. However, besides me, there were only a few joggers and elderly people here and there. I’d expect a beautiful place like this to be crowded during weekends. Guess hanging out at a park isn’t that popular anymore? I arrived at the pond, and scanned my surroundings. I managed to spot someone resembling Hirasawa at the opposite end of the pond, and began walking around it.

As I finally got there, I halted in astonishment. Sure, it was Hirasawa alright, sitting on a park bench, facing the pond, but… She was dressed in a pink dress with a white, unbuttoned jacket on top of it. With the sunshine on her face and her hair fluttering in the gentle wind, she looked pretty. I was just standing here, staring at her for who know how long, until she finally noticed me.

“Ah, you’re here,” she said, smiling warmly.

It took me by surprise. “O-oh, yeah, hi.”

I walked over to the bench and took a seat on the opposite end of it, joining her at watching the pond. It vividly reflected the blue of the sky, a few ducks swimming on its surface. A gentle breeze blew past us. It was peaceful.

“What do you think about my clothes?” Hirasawa suddenly asked me.

“Well, uh, they’re nice,” I replied, trying my best not to blush.

She smiled at me, and grabbed the hem of her dress. “That’s nice to hear. I bought this some time ago, but I wasn’t sure if it’d look good on me.” Gal, you’re talking to a dude who wears nothing but the same red hoodie all the time…

“Ah, I also brought us some snacks,” she realized, grabbing a basket from the ground, and setting it on her lap. I took a peek, and saw some sandwiches, cookies, three teacups, a thermos… Hold on, _three_? Three teacups? Don’t tell me…

“Heeey~, Ui-chan!”

I turned around, and saw Suzuki running towards us, waving her hand. She circled the bench and sat in the middle, right between us.

“Ah, Suzuki. Did you miss me already?” I greeted her sarcastically.

“Yeah, a lot. I didn’t know what to do without you,” she responded, having noticed my sarcasm.

I smirked. This girl sure is fun. Hirasawa handed teacups over to us, and poured some tea into them from the thermos. As I sipped my tea, watching the pond in front of us, I realized something: this is exactly what I’ve been longing for. Peaceful moments, with nothing but a cup of tea and two good friends. I felt relaxed, completely forgetting about the world outside the park. Right now, at this moment, there was nothing else in my world but the pond, the ducks swimming in it, the two girls sitting next to me, and the tea I was holding. I finished my tea, setting the cup down next to me, and leaned back, closing my eyes.

A green light orb appeared… and it was gone. I woke up to someone shacking me. I tried opening my eyes, but the bright sky was too blinding, so I gave up. Soon, the shacking stopped. Finally, some peace…

“N-no, don’t slap him!” I heard a shout.

It made me wake up completely. I glanced to my left, seeing Suzuki with her hand raised up, ready to slap me. I shielded myself with my arm.

“I-I’m awake!”

Suzuki lowered her hand, placing her finger on her lower lip to look as innocent as possible. “Heh, sorry, I got a bit carried away.”

I wasn’t buying it. “Yeah, well, if you had hit me, I would’ve probably instinctively punched you back. Then neither one of us would’ve had fun.”

I saw a flash of fright in her eyes, as she seemed to understand my warning. Of course I was just kidding, but I wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t slap me awake any time soon. Over Suzuki, I saw Hirasawa sitting next to her, a scared expression on her face. However, she soon calmed down, sighing out of relief. She picked up the basket from the ground, and handed it over to me so that I could pick something from its contents. I decided to grab couple of cookies, which looked homemade. I threw one into my mouth, and… oh… oh my…

_It’s fucking amazing!_

…oh, shit, did I just let out some satisfied noises? I swallowed the cookie and hastily fixed my posture. However, it was too late; the girls had already noticed my reaction, and were both smiling at me.

I embarrassedly smiled back, showing them the other cookie between my fingers. “These are good.”

“Thank you. I baked them earlier today,” she said, seemingly pleased by my comment.

As I was done eating the second cookie, a strong breeze blew from behind us. And when I said strong, I meant it; leaves were flying around, trees were bending… even I was about to fall over. Hirasawa, however, had worse luck: the yellow string she uses to tie her hair into a ponytail got untied in the breeze and flew in the air. She tried to grab it, but to no affair. As the breeze died down, the string landed right in the middle of the pond.

“Oh no, that string was a present from my sister,” I heard her saying, a bit of sadness in her voice.

What a shitty situation. The string was nowhere near the shore, and I don’t think any one of us was willing to go for a swim. _What a pity_ , I was about to say, until I saw Hirasawa’s sad expression. I don’t know why, but… I wanted to help her out. I glanced back at the pond, trying to come up with an idea. I don’t think I’d find a stick long enough to grab the string out of the water. Maybe some waves could carry it over to the shore, but the wind had died down and I’d only get in trouble for throwing rocks into the water…

“Waves…” I muttered out loud.

Suzuki turned to me, a curious expression on her face. “What, you have some kind of an idea?”

I started drumming the ground with my heel, a bit nervous. “…maybe.”

I stood up, walking over to the basket next to Hirasawa. I grabbed a bread part off of one of the sandwiches, shredding it into three parts. I rolled each of them into a ball, and started walking along the shore. The girls followed right behind me, both seemingly confused. I stopped at a spot where the string was closest to the shore. I grabbed one of the bread balls, checked its flight path, and threw it. It flew right over the string, plopping near it, just as I had planned.

Suzuki crossed her arms and leaned towards me. “I heard you talking about waves, but I’m not sure if that will do the trick.”

I glanced at her, but didn’t say a word. Instead, I pointed at the floating bread ball with my finger. A second later, half a dozen of ducks rushed over to the bread ball, creating a huge wave in the process, which carried the string a bit closer to the shore. The girls seemed to finally realize my plan. I threw another bread ball, and it landed right behind the string. The ducks, of course, rushed to it, and the string floated even closer to the shore. It was actually so close that I could’ve picked it up with a meter-long stick, but I couldn’t bother to search for one. Instead, I threw the last bread ball into the water, causing the ducks to create yet another wave. The string was finally right next to the shore.

I turned to Hirasawa. “See? It wasn’t difficult at all.”

I walked to the edge of the shore, which was about 30 centimeters higher than the water’s surface. I was crouching to pick the string up, when the gravel under my shoes made me slip, and fall headfirst straight into the water. I quickly realized I couldn’t do anything to save myself.

The water wasn’t very deep. Luckily, the bottom was sand, so I didn’t hurt my face as it struck against the bottom. The rest of my body followed me into the water, and soon I was completely submerged. However, I didn’t really care to stay there and ponder about it. My reflexes kicked in, and I bounced to the surface, gasping for air, and shaking the water out of my hair. I grabbed the yellow string floating right next to me. It’s this damn thing’s fault that I’m currently having a swim. I climbed to the shore, soaking wet.

I realized something and started pounding my pockets in panic, only to realize I had forgotten my phone at home. I glanced at the string in my hand, and handed it over to Hirasawa. She, however, was shocked, as was Suzuki. Guess my previous stunt had scared them, huh.

“I’m fine. I’m not hurt anywhere, I’m just soaked, that’s all,” I explained, trying to calm them down.

It was followed by silence. I wasn’t sure if my words had any effect, so I just handed the string Hirasawa again. After hesitating a bit, she took it.

“Ah, t-thank you. I-I don’t… you didn’t…” she stuttered.

“Yeah, whatever. What’s done is done,” I muttered.

I took my hoodie off, and began squeezing most of the water out of the sleeves. My watch was waterproof, so I didn’t need to worry about it.

Hirasawa was watching my doings for a while, until she looked at the ground and asked: “Would you… would you like to take a bath at my house?”

The question made me flinch. I noticed I was squeezing the sleeve so hard it almost changed shape.

“I, uh… well, um… uh…” I stammered.

Suzuki, who was watching the situation from the side, was giggling into her hand.

“And you, shut the hell up!” I snapped at her.

She didn’t care about my yelling, so I just ignored her. Let’s see now… a teenage dude taking a bath while two young girls are waiting behind the door. If we ignore the genders, I guess it made sense. I’d probably catch a cold or something if I walked home with soaked clothes. However, if I’d be able to clean myself and dry my clothes, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting sick.

I rubbed my chin for a moment, sighed, and turned to face Hirasawa. “Alright, sounds good.”

Hirasawa, surprised by my answer, asked: “A-are you sure?”

“Yeah, I am. I don’t like the idea of catching a cold, so drying my clothes would be the best option,” I said, throwing the hoodie on my shoulder.

She seemed to cheer up a bit after realizing I wouldn’t call her a pervert or something. I glanced at Suzuki, who was still a bit amused. We returned to the bench, where Hirasawa gathered all her stuff, and started heading towards Hirasawa residence. As we walked, Hirasawa called her sister and asked her to get the bath ready. Every step I took made a splashing sound. Quite uncomfortable, indeed.

A bit of walking later I stood at Hirasawa household’s yard tiling. As we walked to the front door, I left behind a wet trail. We got to the foyer and I took off my shoes, but before I could take a step forward, Hirasawa raised her hand in front of me.

“Wait here, I’ll take your shoes next to a heater, and bring you a towel.”

She grabbed my sneakers, and headed upstairs. I decided to took my socks off since they felt clammy. My jeans also were damp, but unfortunately I couldn’t take them off. Suzuki, who was sitting on the first step of the stairs, was staring at me. I was about to ask her about it, until she pointed her finger towards my head.

“You’ve got some sand in your hair,” she informed me.

I raked my fingers through my hair, and noticed some sand particles sticking under my fingernails. I leaned against the foyer’s wall and sighed.

“What a sh— crapshow…” I muttered, trying my best to control my vocabulary.

“That was an amazing dive you did back there,” Suzuki quipped with a grin.

I glanced at her, and smirked. “I should’ve grabbed you with me, the water was refreshing.”

We both chuckled for a while, and heard approaching footsteps from the stairs. Suzuki scooted to the side to make way for Hirasawa, who was carrying a towel.

“Here, dry yourself with this,” she said, handing the towel over to me.

I gave her a nod of thanks, and started drying myself, mostly my hair. Of course it didn’t dry completely, but it was something.

“Ah, by the way, your bath is ready,” Hirasawa told me.

I felt like kicking myself in the knee and falling over, but decided against the idea. Instead, I nodded in agreement.

“Right, thanks. I appreciate this, truly.”

Hirasawa gave me a relieved smile. I handed the towel back to her, and she started escorting me upstairs. I noticed her sister, Yui, laying on the living room’s floor, watching TV. She turned around to look at me.

“Oh, what happened to you?” she asked.

Explaining the whole story would take too long. However, I noticed a heater sitting in the corner of the room, and the yellow string laying in front of it (as well as my sneakers).

I pointed at the string: “ _That_ happened.”

Yui kept changing views between me and the string, clearly not understanding what I was saying. I’ll explain it to her later, so she wouldn’t ponder over it for the rest of her life. Hirasawa led me up one more set of stairs, bringing me to the top floor. The bathroom’s door was already open, and Hirasawa beckoned me to step inside, but stayed in the hallway herself.

She pointed at a compact drying rack in the corner. “You can hang your clothes there to dry. There’s a towel you can use next to the bathtub. When you’re done bathing, you can use that bathrobe on the counter.”

I nodded. “Got it. Anything else?”

Hirasawa put her index finger on her lips, thinking. “Well, that’s about it. When you’re done bathing, come back downstairs, I’ll make us some tea.”

I nodded and closed the door, locking it. I leaned against the bathroom counter to get a better look at myself in the mirror. My wet, brown hair was a mess, and I could see some sand particles in them. Well, time to get undressed, I guess. After a bit of world’s quietest undressing later, all my clothes were hanging from the rock, except for my boxers. I felt anxious. After a couple of calming breaths, I made sure the door was locked, checked the room for hidden cameras, and finally took off my boxers, putting them on the rack with the rest of my clothes.

I glanced at the mirror, only to find it steaming up. Guess Hirasawa increased the bathroom’s temperature so that my clothes would dry quickly. I tried to relax a bit, pretending I was in my own bathroom. Somehow it helped me to avoid a total breakdown. I opened the door that led to the bathtub itself, which was full of steaming water. I got into the bath, and slowly started descending, until only my head was above the surface. I started scrubbing the sand off my scalp. 

After five minutes or so, I was done cleaning myself. I dried myself with the towel, and walked back to the bathroom counters. I was about to grab the bathrobe, until I thought about it for a bit. I glanced at the drying rack, and grabbed my boxers. Sure, they were still a bit moist, but I don’t want to risk the girls seeing my dick. I put them on, and took the bathrobe. It was clearly meant for men. Their father’s, perhaps? I hope Mr. Hirasawa won’t mind… no, he definitely would mind. He would mind a lot.

I threw the bathrobe on, fastening the robe around my waist. I arranged my hair for a bit, took a deep breath, and unlocked the bathroom door. I glanced at my clothes once more, and carefully opened the door. The hallway was empty, save for a pair of slippers sitting right next to the door. But they weren’t the usual plastic slippers, no. They were a pair of comfy looking wool slippers. Damn, all this for me?

I walked downstairs, and saw Suzuki sitting at the coffee table, eating a cream donut. The sound of my footsteps made her flinch, but she didn’t raise her head. Actually, she hanged it even lower.

“I’ve got a bathrobe, don’t be shy,” I said, shaking my head.

“Y-yeah, but still…” she muttered, staring at her half-eaten donut.

I was about to say something, but decided not to, and just shrugged instead. I took a seat at my usual spot, facing the balcony door. The coffee table held a plateful of cream donuts, but no tea. Speaking of which, Hirasawa appeared from the kitchen, carrying a tea tray in her hands. She looked at me, flinched, and directed her gaze at the tray.

I threw my hands to my sides, a bit frustrated. “Oh, come on! I don’t look _that_ terrible, do I?”

Hirasawa didn’t answer. I sighed and decided to give up. To be honest, I’d probably be the same in their shoes. After a bit of awkward silence, Hirasawa finally stepped forward, and set the teacups around the coffee table. I pulled back the robe’s sleeves and grasped the teacup, letting it warm my palms. Slowly, Hirasawa and Suzuki joined me at the coffee table, still staying quiet and glancing elsewhere. Well, whatever. I’ll just let them take their time. Meanwhile, I’ll just enjoy my tea.

I woke from my thoughts to someone nudging my robe’s sleeve. I turned to look to my right, and saw Suzuki holding my sleeve.

“Hey, Sugimoto-san, are you listening?” she asked me.

“Huh? Uh, yeah,” I muttered, a bit confused.

She nodded, but didn’t let go of my sleeve. Instead, she pulled it, so I stood up, letting her lead me to the other side of the coffee table. In front of the TV, I noticed a pink PlayStation 2 console, with two controllers plugged in. I didn’t even need to ask what was on her mind. I sat on the floor, few meters away from the TV. At the same time I glanced at the coffee table, only to find it empty, and heard Hirasawa washing dishes in the kitchen.

“Well? What do you want to play?” Suzuki asked me, and pushed half a dozen of game cases to my face.

I took the cases and examined them, right away recognizing most. Some were good, and some would provide more entertainment if used as frisbees instead. The games didn’t include the kinds that I usually play - shooters and other mature games.

After pondering a bit, I chose on of the games: “What about this?”

Suzuki grabbed the game case, studied it a bit, and nodded; “Fine by me.”

She crawled to the console, and inserted the disc. Soon the game’s main menu popped on the screen, and I grabbed the controller. It was a snowboarding game. Actually, it was one of my favorite games. I tried my best not to smirk as I browsed through the menu and chose multiplayer mode. I chose the map and my game character. After customizing the character a bit, I pressed the Ready-button. I turned to look at Suzuki, who seemed a bit surprised due to my knowledge of the game, but didn’t say a word. Instead, she chose her own character, and we were ready to race.

Three minutes passed, and the race was over. I got the first place, while Suzuki got the sixth. I hesitatingly turned to look at Suzuki, who was staring at the TV in awe. I grimaced a bit as I tried to come up with something to say. Suddenly, Suzuki dropped the controller on the carpet, quickly turned to face me, and grabbed me by the bathrobe’s collar, pulling me closer to her.

“Why didn’t you tell you knew this game!? Why didn’t you tell you’re so good at this!?” she shouted, staring right into my eyes.

“Uh, well, um, uh…” I stuttered.

She pulled me so close to herself that I could feel her warm breath on my face. From her brown eyes, I saw a reflection of my terrified expression.

“Why!?”

In a nanosecond my brains received the message, and immediately began searching for a suitable answer. They were met with hundreds of error messages and system crashes. After approximately four seconds, I finally received the answer.

“…sorry…” I muttered.

Suzuki kept staring at me angrily for a while, until she finally let go of me, throwing herself backwards. I almost fell on my face, but I managed to balance myself back to sitting position. I looked at Suzuki, who was sitting in fetal position, ashamedly looking at the controller she dropped. After a bit of silence, she suddenly chuckled, a bit embarrassed.

“Guess I overreacted a bit. Sorry about that,” she apologized.

I felt like saying something inappropriate, but discarded the thought. “A bit? Yeah, maybe if you put it mildly.”

Suddenly, we started hearing giggling. We turned to look at the sofa, and saw Hirasawa, trying to cover her laughing mouth with her palm. At some point she had returned to the living room and spectated our playing without us noticing. She eased her laughing after we noticed her presence. However, she quickly fell silent, and just kept staring at me, her face turning bright red. A bit confused, I turned to Suzuki for answers, but she was blushed too. I kept glancing at the two of them for a while.

“What?” I finally asked.

Hirasawa pointed at me. “Y… you… your…”

I glanced at Suzuki, who also began stuttering: “Y-your…”

She pointed her finger at my bathrobe. A bit confused, I glanced downwards, and half of my brain died. When Suzuki was trashing me around, the robe’s belt became loose. My crotch was fully visible. Thank the fucking lord I decided to wear my boxers. Seems like even that was too much for them. It was too much for me, too. I quickly pulled the bathrobe tightly shut, fastening the belt, and tying in with a double knot.

“All done, you could’ve just said something,” I said, trying to keep my cool.

Their blushes had started to disappear, and they felt a bit awkward. To be honest, I felt so too. The living room was filled by the nonexistent voice of our silence, the time crawling by. It seemed to be too much for Hirasawa.

“A-are you hungry?” she asked.

Suzuki and I glanced at each other, and then back at Hirasawa, waiting for continuation.

“I-I could order us some pizza. We could also watch some movie,” she suggested.

The idea wasn’t half bad, I actually was getting hungry, and it’d take longer than this until my clothes would dry. I looked at Suzuki, who shrugged, and we nodded to Hirasawa.

While we were waiting for the pizza, I decided to teach Suzuki how to play. She learnt pretty quickly, and soon we had some actually tight matches. Our pizza arrived soon after that, and Hirasawa gave us the task of choosing the movie. Their movie collection didn’t have anything that caught my eye, so I let Suzuki make the decision. She chose some comedy-drama, which was better than nothing. We spent the afternoon watching a movie and eating pizza.

After the movie was finished, I went upstairs to check on my clothes. They still were a bit damp, but not so much that it would be a bother. I wanted to hurry back home, since my mother would be making dinner soon. It’s not that I was hungry, I just didn’t want to worry her. After getting undressed, I returned downstairs, telling the girls about my plans to head home. They escorted me to the foyer, where we said our goodbyes to each other, and I headed out.

As I walked, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Playing games, eating pizza, watching movies… I’ve done all that with Tadaaki and Ichiro. But, it somehow felt refreshing to do those things with Hirasawa and Suzuki. They were different, in a good way. Not that there’s anything wrong with my old friends, of course. I slipped my hands into my hoodie’s pockets, and started humming the main menu theme of that snowboarding game.


	8. Afternoon At Pool

The weather got warmer, people started wearing less clothing, and all school students switched over to summer uniforms. Yup, it was summer, alright. I, however, still kept my jeans and red hoodie on, since I didn’t mind the heat that much. Also, summer vacation would begin in just a few weeks, which everybody waited for.

I flinched awake due to a noise that sounded a lot like a car horn. I rolled my computer chair around, stood up, and headed to the window to find the culprit. Two motorists shouting at each other on the intersection in front of our house, nothing serious. Soon both of them disappeared, and I yawned, massaging my aching neck. Huh, looks like I fell asleep at my computer table. I walked over to the table and shook the mouse to wake the computer from sleep mode. Seems like I was watching some movie last night. Well, I don’t remember much of it, so I reminded myself of watching it again later, and closed the video player.

As I tiredly walked downstairs, I was met with the pleasant aroma of coffee. I headed to the kitchen, where I saw my brother browsing the fridge.

“There’s something weird going on. No matter how many times I check the fridge, there’s never anything new there.”

I chuckled to his shitty joke as I grabbed a mug from a cabinet. “Go shopping, then.”

“Nah, Tamiko is already handling it,” he muttered, and closed the fridge.

Sugimoto Tamiko, our 14-year-old sister. If none of our parents are around, is usually her who does the cooking and such, since my brother and I are both useless. She seems to be the only one of us who has inherited our mother’s traits: light hair, green eyes… she almost looks like a foreigner. She’s also my most treasured person. No one, who knows me, has dared to bully her. Though, on the other hand, she might have a reputation of being “delinquent’s sister”.

“Hey, Eiji! Hey!” Daichi shouted.

I woke from my thoughts, glancing at my coffee, which was flooding over the edges. God damn it, I really got to stop thinking about stuff when I’m doing things that need concentration, like pouring coffee into a mug. With an annoyed snarl, I quickly began cleaning the table. Afterwards I carried the coffee upstairs to my room, and began browsing my favorite imageboard.

As I finished my coffee, I heard the front door opening. Tamiko must’ve returned. As I was walking down the stairs, I saw Daichi reaching his hand towards Tamiko.

“Give me the change, I need to buy something myself.”

Tamiko, however, just glanced downwards, not saying a word. She walked past my confused brother, and set the grocery bag down on the kitchen counter. Something happened, I just know it. I quickly returned upstairs to grab my hoodie, since I had a feeling I’d need to venture outside, after which I headed to the kitchen, where Daichi was still trying to ask Tamiko about the money. Tamiko saw me peering into the kitchen, and flinched.

“I… I… I lost them! They fell out of my pocket!”

She looked at both of us, and quickly realized we weren’t buying into that. Tamiko has never been a good liar. I walked to her, crouched down a bit, and looked her into her eyes.

“Tamiko, who was it?” I asked.

“W-what do you mean _who_?” she muttered, glancing elsewhere.

“Hey, eyes up here,” I calmly said to her, and our eyes met once again. “Who was it? And where?”

She kept looking at me for a moment, until she glanced downwards, and started telling. Some guy, probably the same age as her, had snatched the money from her hand as she was stepping out of the store. She gave me a description of the guy and told me the direction he ran off to.

I nodded, placing my hand on her head. “Don’t worry, I’ll get the money back,” I said with a slight smile.

“J-just don’t hurt anyone, please,” she muttered.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I headed to the foyer to get my shoes on. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around, noticing my brother behind me. He silently hit his fist against his palm, and I nodded for an answer. He gave me a thumbs-up with a grin. I stepped outside, glancing at the partly cloudy sky. I began walking towards the store.

Few minutes later I arrived at the grocery store, and headed to the direction the guy allegedly ran off to. I glanced at a side alley, and halted. There he was. Striped hoodie, a buzz cut… yup, that’s the culprit. He was leaning against a wall, checking his phone. I took couple of deep breaths, trying to calm myself down, and walked towards him. I stopped, standing few meters from him.

“Yo, what’s up?” I greeted.

He raised his gaze from his phone, looking at me confusedly. Man, he’s clearly just some wannabe punk. I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Have you seen my sister around here?” I asked him.

The guy slipped his phone into his pocket, staying quiet. I slowly started walking towards him.

“You know, about same age as you, maybe.”

Guy didn’t speak, but kept staring at me. I stopped walking, looking him straight in the eyes, and lowered my voice.

“ _Light hair, white shirt, blue shorts, carrying a grocery bag, happened to lose the money she had in her hand._ ”

This made the guy take a step backwards.

“What’s it to you? You have any idea who you’re messing with?” he asked.

I took a step closer, shaking my head. “No, I couldn’t give a shit about who you think you are.”

The guy tried his best to keep his cool. Man, just give up, already.

I reached my hand to him. “Now, I’d like the money back.”

“Fuck you,” he retorted, taking another step backwards.

I bit my lip as I tried to keep calm. “Really, dude? We have to result to this?”

“I said _fuck you_!” the guy shouted, and threw a punch at me, hitting me in the cheek.

I kept looking at him, and rubbed my cheek. After a few seconds, I started to chuckle.

“Bad mistake, boy.”

Before the guy could do anything else, I ran a step forward, grabbing him by the collar, and pushing him on the ground. I pressed my knee on his chest, and started beating him.

_Punch_

“You just wanted to get beaten up, huh?”

_Punch_

“I’m not fucking around, you know.”

_Punch, punch_

“Where’s the fucking money!?”

_Punch, punch_

As I was aiming for another hit, the guy quickly dug out a handful of cash from his pocket. “H-here! It’s here!”

I held my fist in the air, glancing at the money in his hand, and then at his frightened face, blood dripping from his nose. I lowered my fist and grabbed the money from his hand. I stood up, counting the money, while the guy rolled over to his side, holding his bleeding nose.

After making sure every penny was there, I shoved the cash in my pocket, and smirked at the guy; “Well now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

The guy glanced at me from the corner of his eye, not saying a word. Not that I wasn’t expecting an answer. I looked at my shaking hand and its bruised knuckles, raising the index finger towards the guy.

“Don’t make me come back,” I muttered, and left the side alley.

When I got home, I gave the money to my brother, who was waiting for me in the foyer. Before he could ask anything, I showed him my bruised knuckled. He nodded with a grin. As I was heading upstairs, my sister noticed me from the living room.

“You didn’t hurt him, right?” she asked, clearly concerned.

I shook my head, keeping my right hand hidden in my pocket. “Of course not, I just talked him over.”

I walked up the stairs, and headed to the bathroom to wash off the blood. As I was drying my hand, I glanced at my reflection on the mirror, and kept staring at it. Obviously, this wasn’t the first time I’ve fought, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last. Of course I always try to talk things through first. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

This is the _me_ I’ve been talking about. The _me_ I don’t want Hirasawa and Suzuki to find out about.

As I stepped into my room, I noticed my phone vibrating on the table, so I picked it up. The caller was unknown. I thought about it for a while, and decided to answer.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, Sugimoto-san!” a familiar voice greeted me.

“…Suzuki? Where did you get my number?” I asked, confused.

“Ui-chan gave it to me,” she told.

I closed my room’s door, and walked to the window to check out the scenery. “She gave it to you, or did _you_ ask for it?”

She was quiet for a few seconds, until she chuckled nervously. “Never mind that. So, didn’t you once say that you don’t know this town that well?”

“Yeah,” I answered. However, I started thinking about her question more carefully. “Don’t tell me…”

“Let’s go to the pool!” she suggested enthusiastically.

The pool… go to the pool… _go to the pool with a teenage girl_ …

It was too much. My feet gave in, and I crashed on the floor. As I was laying there on my stomach, I moved the phone close to my mouth.

“…why?” I whispered.

Suzuki chuckled. “The pool was reopened last week after a renovation, and I’d really like to go there. But, I don’t want to go alone,” she explained.

Somehow, this information helped me to calm down. I got on my feet, and glanced at the clear blue sky through the window.

“What about Hirasawa?” I asked.

“Ah, she can’t come.”

I unintentionally raised my eyebrow; “Why?”

“I don’t know. I asked her first, but she just told me she was busy.”

“So, I’m your last hope? The last person you’d ask to hang out?” I asked sarcastically, smirking.

After a bit of silence, Suzuki carefully answered: “…maybe?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, I guessed as much.”

“So, uh, you coming?” she asked.

I shrugged to myself. “Eh, sure, why not.”

So it was set, then. She told me to meet her at a nearby train station in half an hour, and we ended the call. Man, I thought we’d just go roam around the downtown, but to the pool? Well, I’ve never been there before, so it was fine by me.

I took my backpack, stuffing it with my swim trunks and a towel, and headed downstairs. I stopped by at the kitchen to grab myself a small soda bottle, and headed to the foyer. As I was getting my shoes on, Tamiko peeked from the living room.

“Are you going somewhere?” she asked me.

It took me a couple of seconds to come up with an answer: “…to the pool with my friend.”

“Okay, have fun,” she said with a smile and disappeared back to the living room.

Thank god this family doesn’t ask too many questions. I double-checked I had everything with me, and headed out.

Soon I arrived at the train station. I scoped it out, not finding Suzuki. Well, guess I’ll just wait. I took a seat on a bench, spending my time by watching the blue sky. Man, it sure was warm. I, however, didn’t have to wait for too long. From the corner of my eye, I saw someone familiar approaching the bench.

I turned to face the person. “Yo, you finally decided to show u—”

It was Suzuki, alright. What surprised me was her attire: a beautiful, flower patterned sun dress. I was so used to seeing her in shorts and jeans. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in feminine clothing.

She, of course, noticed me admiring her clothing. She crouched down in front of me and snapped her fingers. It made me realize the situation, and I quickly turned my gaze back to the sky. Suzuki, however, decided to lean closer.

“You like what you see?” she whispered.

“…fuck off,” I muttered, trying to hold my blush.

“Now, now. Language, Sugimoto-san,” she said with an amused grin, taking a seat next to me.

I spent the following minutes in an awkward silence, until our train arrived at the station. We boarded the train, our destination being the pool.

Sure, I’ve known of the pool’s existence, but I’ve never cared to go there. Maybe if Tadaaki or Ichiro would’ve asked me, sure, but they, neither, care about playing in water. I mean, sure, I can swim, thanks to the school’s swimming classes. I’ve also been at a beach couple of times. In other words, I’m capable of swimming, but I don’t really like to do it on my own.

Sometime later we arrived at the pool. We both headed to our respective locker rooms. I found a suitable locker, stuffing my clothes inside and changing into my swim trunks. After making sure the locker was locked and that the key’s strap was firmly around my ankle, I headed off towards the pool.

Shielding my eyes from the blinding sun, I gazed at the pool. Or _pools_. There were surprisingly many bodies of water, filled and surrounded by hundreds of people. I also spotted a very tall water slide further away. God damn, I got to try that out, despite my fear of heights.

I scoped my surroundings in awe for a while, until I remembered I wasn’t alone here. I looked around for Suzuki, and spotted her standing near the women’s locker room. She was wearing a crimson two-piece swimsuit, carrying her red bag on her shoulder. In turn, she seemed to be looking for _me_. I did some indefinable movements with my right leg, trying to decide if I should walk to her or go to a completely opposite direction. She, however, managed to spot me, and started walking towards me. Blah, guess I’ll have to go through with this…

We spent the next few hours messing around the pool. At least I think it was a few hours, since at one point I fell asleep under a parasol, so I wasn’t quite sure about the time. Nevertheless, it was fun. I even completely forgot about our opposite genders.

I was sitting a bit away from the pool under a parasol, drinking a blended ice drink and watching people having fun, when Suzuki returned to me, carrying two ice creams. I nodded for a thanks as I took one of the ice creams, and Suzuki sat down next to me. I licked a tongueful of ice cream into my mouth as I continued watching the surrounding area. However, Suzuki suddenly spoke.

“…you know, Ui-chan didn’t _want_ to come with us.”

The information surprised me. I turned to Suzuki, waiting for her to continue. She kept her eyes forward, looking at nothing in particular.

“I had originally planned for us three to come here. At first, Ui-chan agreed to my invitation, but when I mentioned you, she just fell silent,” she told.

I tried opening my mouth, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to say. So, instead, I just let her continue.

“…I really can’t put it in prettier words. It actually happened exactly like that. She really said that she didn’t _want_ to come.”

What the hell…? Ugh, I got to say something, or I’ll collapse; “In that case, you could’ve just forgotten about me. I don’t really care even if I wasn’t invited.”

Suzuki processed my words, and became depressed. Fuck, I should’ve chosen my words more carefully.

“Uh, I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had a lot of fun, and I’m grateful that you intended to invite me from the very beginning,” I hastily corrected my words.

After a few painfully long seconds, Suzuki turned to face me, and smiled. “Thanks.”

A bit of more playing later we decided it was time to head back home. During the train ride, Suzuki almost fell asleep on my shoulder, seemingly tired from all the playing. To be honest, I was a bit exhausted, too. Returning to our station, we said our goodbyes to each other, and headed in opposite directions. I walked alongside the river, glancing at it once in a while. However, I decided to halt, and just watch the river.

Hirasawa didn’t _want_ to come. All because I’d be coming too. But why? Was it because we’d be at a pool, and it would be embarrassing? Or was there something else? Have I said something bad to her? No, wait… has someone _else_ said something to her? Did she figure out about my personality? About my reputation? I… I don’t fucking know. I’ve got to stop being so pessimistic, always assuming the worst, but, I just can’t help it. There must be some reason…

Fucking hell, I’m just overthinking this. I’ll just ask her about it later. After a bit of pondering, I repositioned my backpack, and continued on walking back to home.


	9. The End of Summer

My summer vacation was spent a bit more lazily than the past ones. Couple of weeks after my visit at the pool, I turned 16. As always, my mom baked me a delicious cake, I got some presents, and I spent the night drinking beer with Tadaaki and Ichiro. I’ve become to question birthdays. As far as I know, it’s just a celebration of one’s survival through the past year, and all the gifts and treats are like rewards. Like leveling up your character in some videogame or something.

As the time would go on, it wouldn’t be too long until I’d stop receiving those rewards, since birthdays are more of a juveniles’ party. A step closer to the adulthood, a step closer to the future. When those milestones are reached, birthdays become just a reminder of how long you’ve been alive.

Day by day you’re closer to your expiration date, and some day you just stop existing. I can’t help but to think what it would feel like if I’d know the exact date of my death. What would I do? Would anything even matter at that point? Ugh, I don’t know. I don’t know a damn thing.

As the summer vacation itself rolled through, I didn’t do a thing. I just stayed home, playing videogames, browsing the internet, or just laying on my bed. I didn’t feel like doing anything. Sure, Tadaaki and Ichiro tried to invite me outside a couple of times, but I just told them I wasn’t in the mood. Soon after, they decided to leave me alone. I don’t think this will affect our relationships, since we’d be together at school when the vacation ends.

Only few days until the summer vacation would end. I was laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, my wrist on my forehead. My hair was a mess. The afternoon sun shined through the window, warming my feet. My eyes were sore, my head hurt. My thinking was interrupted by my phone, which started vibrating on the computer table. I turned my head and watched as the phone moved bit by bit due to the vibration. I didn’t feel like answering it, I didn’t even care who it was. Hopefully, they’ll give up soon.

The phone vibrated itself off the table, and fell straight into a trash bin. I chuckled, and turned my gaze back to the ceiling, listening to the vibrating trash bin. As I had hoped, the vibration stopped. It was quiet. However, some moments later the bin vibrated again, this time letting out a message tone. Whoever tried to call me earlier sent me a text message, I reckon. It began to bother me, so I forced myself to stand up, and walked to the trash bin, crouching down. I picked my phone amongst the trash, checking its lid. The message was from someone I knew. From a certain girl.

**Hirasawa Ui, 1 unread message** , my phone stated. I felt like ignoring it, but, I was a bit curious. I browsed around my phone’s menu, trying to decide between messaging and calling. Ugh, maybe I should check her message first. I browsed my way to the messages folder.

**Sender: Hirasawa Ui  
** Hey, Sugimoto-san! I haven’t heard of you in a long time. How are you doing? Have you been busy this summer? I tried asking Jun-chan, but she doesn’t know. Even my sis is asking about you. I can’t help but feel a bit worried. So, call me, just to let me know that you’re alright.  
 **\- - - - -**

I didn’t know what to do. I tried to stand up, but it felt difficult. I barely managed to walk back to my bed, crashing on top of it. Why the hell would Hirasawa be _worried_ about me? I thought she didn’t want to spend time with me, since she hasn’t contacted me after Suzuki’s and my visit to the pool. I re-read the message several times, each time more confused. I sighed, opening the contact list, and dialing Hirasawa’s number. I sat up, holding the phone to my ear nervously. The dial tone sounded frustratingly long, until it suddenly stopped.

“Hello?” a familiar voice answered.

I opened my mouth to talk, but no words came out.

“…Sugimoto-san?” she continued.

It made me stutter: “Uh, um… hi.”

Hirasawa sounded to sigh out of relief. “Hey, nice to hear of you! How have you been?”

“Uh, fine, I guess,” I answered. However, before Hirasawa could talk, I quickly corrected myself: “…or, well, I’ve been better. I feel kind of lonely right now.”

“…is there some way I can help?” Hirasawa asked, sounding worried.

“Nah, you did already by calling me. By the way, sorry about my negligence. I didn’t mean to worry you nor Suzuki,” I said. I couldn’t control my mouth, I told her everything I felt.

“Ah, well, that’s nice to hear,” Hirasawa said. “Um, would you like to come over for some tea?”

Few months ago I would’ve been uncertain, but not now. I really needed to see somebody familiar. “Sure.”

“Great, my sis and I will be waiting for you here.”

“Alright, then. I’ll be there in about half an hour, see you then,” I stated, before ending the call.

I threw my hoodie on my shoulders, stopped by at the bathroom to fix my hair a bit, and headed downstairs. After getting my shoes on, I stepped on the porch, smelling the refreshing summer air, and started heading towards the Hirasawa residence.

Soon, I was standing in front of the three-story house. It sure has been a while since I last visited this place. I walked to the front door, and rang the doorbell. To my surprise, it was Yui who opened the door. She had her usual goofy smile on her face, which soon disappeared when she laid her eyes on me.

“…who are you?”

“Are you kidding?” I asked her, a bit frustrated.

Somehow, my annoyed face helped her to remember me. “Ah, Sugimoto-kun! Come on in.”

I followed Yui up the stairs. When I got there, I turned to face the living room, finding Hirasawa sitting at the coffee table. Our eyes accidentally met, and I couldn’t turn my gaze away. I felt ashamed for making her worry about me. Hirasawa, however, just smiled and cocked her head.

“Hey, Sugimoto-san.”

“Uh, yeah, hi,” I muttered, walking over to the coffee table, and sitting down at my usual spot.

I raised my head to see Hirasawa better. “Been a few months, huh?”

“It sure has been. Nice to see you again,” she said, handing over a steaming cup of tea to me.

I nodded for a thanks, and took a sip. Man, I’ve missed this taste. At the same time, Yui took a seat next to Hirasawa.

“Huh? Were you somewhere?” she asked, having listened to our conversation.

I thought about it for a bit, and answered: “I was in my thoughts.”

As I guessed, Yui looked very confused, which made me smirk. I took another sip, and decided to explain a bit better.

“I mean, I was at home, thinking about stuff.”

Yui didn’t seem to listen to me, but was still trying to process my previous answer.

“Ah, now I get it!” she stated, giggling.

I glanced at Hirasawa, who just smiled at her sister. She turned back to face me.

“What were you thinking about all that time?” she asked.

I raised my eyebrow. “Does it matter?”

“Uh, I guess not, just asking,” she said.

I kept gazing at her, and sighed. “Well, to be honest, I can’t remember. Never have my thoughts been too important. I always worry too much about stupid and irrelevant things. Bypassers’ gazes, the weather, stuff related to school… that kind of things. And while I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t doing anything too important, neither. Just playing some videogames, browsing internet, watching movies… I feel like I’ve wasted this summer, but there’s nothing I can do about it now, so whatever, I guess. I also turned 16. That’s pretty much about it.”

The sisters listened to my ramblings, both staying quiet. After I was done, Hirasawa seemed to process my tale word by word, until she noticed something.

She leaned over the table. “What, you had your birthday?”

“Uh, yeah?” I answered, a bit confused due to the sudden approach.

“When?” she asked, sitting back down.

“Uh, a bit before the summer vacation.”

Hirasawa sighed; “I would’ve wanted to wish you happy birthday.”

I was about to say that it wasn’t that important, but I decided to keep quiet, since I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. So, we just kept drinking our tea in silence, while listening to the whirring of a small fan in the corner of the room, and the singing of cicada. Yui, however, didn’t seem to care for the silence.

“Oh, right! My club and I will perform at our school’s festival in a couple of months!” she proclaimed.

I looked at her, a bit surprised. “Is that so? Well, I’ll see if I can make it there.”

Yui seemed pleased with my answer. Hirasawa, however, realized something.

“Sugimoto-kun? You play guitar, right?” she asked.

Now where’s this coming from? “Uh, a bit. Why?”

I glanced at Yui, who seemed shocked. Before I could ask anything, she suddenly stood up.

“Wait here! Don’t go anywhere!”

She rushed upstairs. Confused, I glanced at Hirasawa, who was just smiling. I heard rumbling upstairs, accompanied by Yui’s fast footsteps. Soon, Yui returned to the living room, carrying a sunburst guitar. I exchanged glances between her and the guitar, not knowing what to say.

“Uh…” I was about to say, until Yui handed the guitar over to me.

“Play something!” she requested.

Hesitatingly, I took the guitar. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

I rotated the guitar in my hands, examining it more closely. It was red on the edges, the color turning orange in the middle. It was good looking, sure, but also a bit heavy.

“Les Paul, huh? I’ve heard these are good,” I said, remembering seeing this guitar in some magazine some time ago.

“Oh?” Yui muttered, clearly not having the slightest idea of what I was talking about. I bet she chose this guitar just because it looked cool…

I quietly strummed the lowermost string, trying to come up with something to play. I only knew a handful of songs. I decided to play the theme song of one of my favorite movies. I cracked my knuckles, set my fingers to Am-chord, and started playing. Playing an electric guitar without an amplifier felt a bit empty, but it didn’t seem to bother my audience. The Hirasawa sisters quietly listened to my playing.

A minute passed, and the song was over. I slowly raised my head, facing the sisters. Hirasawa started applauding.

“That was great!” she said, excited.

Yui, however, just stayed quiet, dumbfounded. After a bit of silence, she finally opened her mouth.

“…Sugimoto-kun?”

“Yeah?” I answered, resting the guitar on my lap.

“Could you please teach me?” she asked.

“…what?”

She leaned a bit closer. “I said: could you please teac—"

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time,” I said, cutting her sentence short. “But, why? Can’t you play yourself?”

She didn’t answer. I glanced at the guitar, and then at her.

“You have such an expensive and fine guitar, so you must be pretty good, right?”

She still didn’t say a thing.

I gave her the nastiest glance and lowered my voice; “Don’t tell me you bought this guitar just for its looks.”

She turned her gaze down and nodded, blushing slightly. I stopped acting serious and chuckled.

“It’s a nice guitar,” I said, handing the guitar back to her.

“Uh, thanks,” she answered.

I leaned on the table with my elbow, and asked out of curiosity: “You go to Sakuragaoka, right? What are your club member like?”

She told me a long story about the bassist, drummer, and pianist (who, apparently, makes good tea).

“…right. So, what do you guys do?” I asked her, expecting to hear about their genre or songs.

“We drink tea and eat snacks,” she answered, like it was nothing.

My elbow slipped and I almost hit my head against the table out of confusion. “Uh, I mean, don’t you guys practice?”

Yui put her finger on her lower lip, glancing upwards. “Well, sometimes, I guess.” I didn’t have time to ask anything, until she remembered something, and leaned closer. “Oh, this summer we held a training camp at a villa right next to the sea!” she excitedly told me.

Villa? I was about to ask about it, but decided against the idea.

We spent the following hour by chatting and eating snacks. As we ran out of things to talk about, Yui began watching the TV, and Hirasawa headed to the kitchen to wash the dishes. I got tired of the TV pretty quickly, and began glancing around. I looked behind me, noticing a small bookshelf behind the dining table. I thought about it for a while, and decided to walk over to the shelf, crouching down next to it. Checking the books, I quickly realized they were for a mature audience, something that a kid would quickly get bored of. I, however, didn’t feel like a kid, so I grabbed one of the books and began reading it. To my surprise, it actually seemed pretty good.

After reading through few pages, I felt a vibration in my pocket. I checked my phone, and noticed a message from my mom, which stated that the dinner would soon be ready. I checked my watch, sighed, and stood up. I turned to face Hirasawa, who was watching TV with her sister. 

“Hey, uh, I got to head back home,” I told her.

“Ah, okay,” she answered, turning to face me. However, her eyes were soon drawn to the book I was holding. I was about to put it back on the shelf, when Hirasawa spoke: “Do you like it? You can borrow it, if you want.”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks,” I said, pulling my hand back.

She escorted me to the foyer. At the door, I raised the book I was holding.

“When do you want this back?”

“Ah, it doesn’t matter. Bring it back when you’re done with it,” she answered with a smile.

I nodded, waved for a goodbye, and began heading home. However, some minutes later I realized I forgot to ask her about why she refused to go to the pool with Suzuki and I. Or, well, maybe it’s not that important, since she invited me to her house, after all. There’s still a few days of summer vacation left. Tadaaki would be returning from his vacation today, so we still have some time to have fun.


	10. Sakuragaoka Festival

I was in the middle of scribbling explosions into my math notebook when the bell rang, ending the school day. I swept the notebook into my schoolbag, and glanced out of the window. The weather was nice, all right. Tadaaki called me from the classroom’s doorway, so I stood up and walked over to him. Before stepping out of the class, I waved my hand to Ichiro, who was in cleaning duty. Tadaaki and I headed to the school’s left wing, and walked down to the basement floor. As we stepped into the club room, I quickly noticed how stuffy the air was. I threw my bag on the couch, and reached up to open one of the windows. Much better.

“Any wishes?” I asked as I walked over to the kitchen area.

“Well… _Yanyang_ would be nice,” Tadaaki answered, crashing on the couch.

After ten minutes or so, the coffee was ready. Leaving enough for Ichiro, I prepared two cups, and carried them over to the couches, handing the other one over to Tadaaki. I took a seat on the couch, resting my legs on top of the coffee table. I reached over to grab one of the remotes, pointing it towards the stereo system. The speakers started blasting 90’s rock music. I sipped my coffee, and glanced at Tadaaki, who was just staring at his cup. It’s unlike him of being so quiet, something must be wrong.

I took my legs off the coffee table, leaned a bit forward, and asked him: “What’s on your mind?”

Tadaaki glanced at me, and then upwards. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you about this for a while… I saw you during summer vacation.”

That’s it? Well, better let him continue. “That same day, I had just come home from vacation. And, well… I saw you in a neighborhood, south-west of here.”

My jaw dropped a bit. I set the coffee cup down on the table, and turned to face Tadaaki. “Wait, how—”

He interrupted be by talking over me: “I was sitting in my dad’s car. They decided to stop by at some small store, so I waited in the car. However, the parking lot was across from a certain neighborhood.”

Hold on… there’s a parking lot right across from Hirasawa’s house. Is he really going to say…?

“Coincidentally, I saw _you_ stepping out of one of the houses, waving goodbye to some girl at the doorway. I think I recognized her, wasn’t she the same gal who came to pick you up at Yukinokawa last winter?” he asked me. I noticed some amusement in his tone.

I tried to keep my cool, and shrugged. “Yeah, the very same. What about it?”

“Are you two dating?” he asked me out of nowhere.

I stood up, clenching my fists. “Of course not! We’re just friends!”

This caused Tadaaki to burst into laughter. I looked at him confusedly for a few seconds, until I sat back down.

“Fuck off already,” I muttered, unamused.

“Relax, man. Can’t you take a joke?” Tadaaki said, still chuckling, and setting his coffee cup down on the table. He soon calmed down, and, with a more serious tone, said: “But seriously speaking, she looks cute and seems nice, so of course I’m wondering if you two would be dating.”

I thought about his words, and nodded.

However, Tadaaki grinned, and continued: “…especially if we consider your ponytail fetish.”

I quickly stood up, walked over to Tadaaki, and grabbed him by the collar. “I’m going to shove your head up your ass, fucker!”

And so began a ruthless wrestling match, accompanied by the rock music blasting from the stereos.

Our obscure scrimmage was interrupted by Ichiro. “What the hell is this? You guys want to be pro wrestlers or something?”

I let go of Tadaaki, and helped him on his feet. His scruffy face made me chuckle, and he also began to laugh. Meanwhile, Ichiro had poured himself a cup of coffee, and carried it over to the couches.

“Why were you both killing each other anyway?” he asked us.

I nervously glanced over at Tadaaki, who just shrugged. “This idiot thought he could beat me in a fight.”

So, Tadaaki was willing to keep secrets. Wonderful. I sat back down on the couch, and resumed sipping my coffee, while Ichiro was setting up a game console.

My phone’s alarm woke me up early in the morning. I had put my phone under my pillow, because I wanted to make sure that no one else would notice the alarm. It was 5:45 in the morning. This was because my mom would wake up at 6, and I didn’t really want anyone to catch me skipping school. Sure, it was a school day, but also the day Sakuragaoka holds a school festival, where Yui would perform with her club. I’d promised to be there, so that’s why I’m currently awake at an inhumane time.

I got dressed as quietly as I could, taking some money with me. There’ll definitely be food stalls at the festival, which will suit me just fine, since I’ll have to skip lunch. I hid my school uniform and bag in my closet, and sneaked downstairs. Being careful of not waking Dash up, I got my shoes on and stepped outside.

It was a bit chilly, and dawn was only just breaking. I dug out a directions sheet, which I had wrote last night, from my back pocket. According to it, Sakuragaoka was a few kilometers to the south, which would probably take half an hour to walk. I slipped my hands into my hoodie’s pockets and began making my journey. After ten minutes of walking, I recognized a certain building on the side of the road. It was my favorite café. I know the owner, since he lives in the same neighborhood as me. It opens up at 6 on weekdays, which was just perfect at my current situation. There’s no way I’ll survive much longer without coffee.

A bell above the door chimed as I stepped inside the café. The dark wood floor and dark green walls gave this place an amazing atmosphere. The walls were covered by numerous framed pictures telling the history of this café. There was a radio on top of the shop counter, which currently broadcasted early morning news. Currently, there were only couple of customers sitting at the tables, sipping coffee, and reading newspapers. Probably office workers or something.

I heard sounds coming from the kitchen, and soon a man appeared behind the counter. The man was 50-something-years old, wearing that same old fishing hat. Of course I recognized him, he’s the owner. And he seemed to recognize _me_.

“Eiji-kun? Up and about pretty early, huh?” he greeted me.

I ignored the latter part, and walked to the counter. “Morning, Nakamura-san. Just a cup of coffee, thanks.”

“Coming right up,” he said as he turned around to prepare the coffee, while I dug out the money out of my pocket and set it on the counter.

Soon I had a steaming cup of coffee in my hands. I decided to take a seat on one of the stools in front of the counter. As I sipped my coffee, Nakamura began sweeping the counter.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’re up this early?” he asked me.

He’s a trustworthy guy, so I guess I can tell him: “…you know Sakuragaoka?”

“Of course I do, my niece is a student there, after all. They’re holding a school festival today, if I remember correctly,” he said.

I gave him some time to think and connect the pieces. As he did that, he soon began to smile.

“Oh, you sly boy, you. Skipping school to visit an all-girls’ school’s festival, huh? Planning on meeting someone you know?”

I sipped my coffee, and shrugged. “Well, yes and no. You see, my friend’s sister is holding a music performance there, and I promised her I’d be there.”

“I see. Well, if you see my niece, tell her I said hi,” Nakamura said, and turned to serve a customer who had just walked in.

I gulped the coffee down, waved for a goodbye, and stepped back outside. I checked the directions sheet again, and began heading ‘200 meters south and then left’.

Quite a bit of walking later I stood in front of an old, white school. I was a bit confused, since I expected seeing hundreds of people roaming around its yard. Instead, there was nothing but empty stalls and cardboard boxes. I glanced at the school’s clock, and then at my wristwatch, both stating that it was a bit over 7 in the morning. God damn it, of course the festival wouldn’t start until later. Even the teachers haven’t come to work yet. Well, since I’m all the way here, I might as well have a look around.

I walked around the school’s yard, admiring different stalls, and peering into half-open boxes. Some minutes later I found myself standing in front of the school’s auditorium. A bulletin board stand of some sort was leaning against the closed doors, so out of curiosity, I turned it around. It had the auditorium’s schedule written on it. Hold on… Yui’s club won’t perform until 12 o’clock? Fuck, I’ll have to wait for five whole hours!

I took a step backwards. Five hours of waiting is five too many. There’s only one option for me: sleeping. I’ve got some sleep debt from my early waking, and I’ve been yawning the whole time. Maybe I’ll find some place to take a nap. I quickly examined the yard again, but didn’t find a single spot where I wouldn’t be found. So, I decided to check the school’s backyard, only to find a sports ground. Yeah, I’m not feeling like sleeping in the middle of a field, thank you. I thought about checking the school building for any unlocked doors or windows, but then again, I’d probably get into even more trouble if someone caught me there.

I let out a tired sigh as I circled the school from the other side. I passed by the school’s gymnasium, only giving it a quick glance. However, I halted as I spotted something strange: the gymnasium’s storage room’s door was ajar. Thoughts racing in my head, I wanted to just keep walking, but my tired legs had other plans as they carried me over to the storage room’s door. I carefully opened the door. After making sure no one was watching me, I slipped inside, closing the door behind me.

The storage room was pretty much what you would expect; it was filled with different kinds of balls, sticks, sports equipment, mattresses, indefinable sacks and bags, and a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The small windows provided enough lighting, so I didn’t have to turn on the lights. Still hesitating a bit, I carefully moved forwards to the back of the storage room, pushing myself into a small space between the wall and the storage carts. No one would notice me, even if they visited the storage room. It was also nice and cool, and the mattress under me was soft. A perfect place to take a nap, that’s for sure. I set my phone to alarm me a bit before Yui’s club’s performance, and laid down. Despite the situation I was currently in, I managed to fall asleep rather quickly.

“…and that goes on the shelf over there, right next to the hoops,” I heard someone saying.

I flinched awake, but my quick thinking stopped me from making too much noise: I was sleeping in another school’s storage room. Carefully, I peeked under the storage carts, and saw two pair of feet.

“Alright, only one sack left,” an unfamiliar girl’s voice stated, and they both disappeared through the doorway.

Recovering from the shock, I checked my watch: 10:50. I had woken up before the alarm, which I quickly turned off. I crawled out of the small space as carefully and quietly as I could, and slipped out of the storage room, quickly heading back to school’s yard. But things were different; it wasn’t quiet anymore. The festival had started, stalls were open, and hundreds of students and people were roaming around the school campus.

As I had over an hour of time to kill, I decided to walk around a bit, scoping out the stalls and activities. It quickly became clear that I was standing out like a sore thumb, since people my age should currently be at school. That’s why all the other visitors were mostly adults and young children. I glanced over at the school building, thought about it for a bit, and decided to check it out, too.

I walked through the lobby, and walked along the hallway, admiring the decorations, and glancing in different classrooms. However, a delicious aroma reached my nose, which reminded me of the fact I haven’t eaten anything today. Following the smell, I found a classroom that served fried noodles. On my right, the desks were arranged into dining tables, with few people enjoying their meals around them. And, on my left, I found the stalls where the noodles were prepared by the students. I walked over to one of the stalls, digging out my wallet and ordering one serving. She got it done pretty quickly, and I carried the plate over to a vacant table. I began enjoying my meal with a good appetite.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?” I heard some girl asking.

I swallowed the food in my mouth. “Go ahead.”

She sat down next to me, setting her plate down on the table. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that she’s a student. I was about to grab another mouthful of noodles, until I realized something, and turned to face her. That dark brown hair, that peculiar but cute hairstyle… there’s no mistaking it.

The girl smiled and cocked her head. “Hey, Eiji-kun! How are you?”

I knew her, she was Nakamura Yoshiko, the café owner’s niece. She works part-time in the café, which is why I’ve come to know her. She’s a year older than me, meaning that she’s a second grader in high school.

I didn’t even have time to answer, when she presented me with a new question: “What in the world are you doing here?”

I looked at her, thought for a while, and decided to tell her the same I had explained to her uncle.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had friends who go to school here. Who would’ve thought that you can be _that_ social?” she said, and began eating her food.

But, to my misfortune, a smug grin appeared on her face. “I still remember the first time we met a few years ago. You were too shy to even glance at me.”

“Y-yeah, let’s just forget about that,” I muttered.

Yoshiko, however, was just getting started. She leaned closer, and whispered: “Of course I knew you were looking at me every time I walked past. But, you’re a boy, so it’s only natural.”

My face bright red, I nervously glanced around to make sure no one was listening to our conversation.

Yoshiko giggled and slapped me on the shoulder. “Relax, can’t you take a joke?”

Still a bit anxious, I decided to just concentrate on my fried noodles, and Yoshiko did the same. After finishing our meals, I glanced at my watch, and turned to Yoshiko.

“I’ve still got half an hour to spare. Want to have a look around?”

“Like a date?” she asked, clearly joking.

I’d had enough of her shit. “Yes or no?”

She shrugged. “Sure, why not. I’ve still got some time before my shift in my class’ manga café.”

So that’s what we did, roaming around the school campus side by side, checking out the stalls and trying out some games and activities. At one point, some students approached us, and asked me if I was ‘Nakamura-senpai’s’ boyfriend. Yoshiko just smiled and kept quiet, so I had to handle the situation and deny the claim. God damn you, Yoshiko… Despite that, I had fun.

Soon it was time for Yui’s club’s performance. I said my goodbyes to Yoshiko, and headed to the auditorium. Inside, it was dark, and all the benches were pretty full. Man, there must be at least three hundred people here. I tried scoping for a suitable seat, but soon gave up, and decided to just stand next to a wall.

**“Next up, the Light Music Club”**

The red curtain raised, and the audience clapped. I joined in the clapping out of formality. It was the first time I saw the members of the light music club. Their outfits were… a bit weird, but they still looked good. From my point of view, Yui was standing on the right, carrying her sunburst Les Paul. After the clapping died down, Yui said something to the nervous looking bassist, and the drummer and pianist joined her, clearly trying to calm the bassist down.

Hold on… have I met the bassist and the drummer somewhere before? They look kind of familiar… Ugh, I can’t put my finger on it.

The drummer set the beat by hitting the drumsticks together, and the song started.

**_♫ Oh, I pray to God, please, give some Dream Time for just the two of us! ♫_ **

Shivers ran down my spine through the whole song. The bassist had a beautiful singing voice, but Yui’s voice seemed ruined, for some reason. Like she had tried to sing black metal for the past hour or something. Nevertheless, it was fucking amazing.

As the last chords rang out, it was quiet, but only for a few seconds: the audience began thunderously applauding, me with them. Skipping school was worth it, that’s for sure. It was the best god damn school performance I’ve ever heard. Yui and her club’s members all seemed very pleased with themselves, as they should be.

“Everybody, thank you!” the bassist shouted, and the applause just went on.

The club members stood up, bowing to the audience, and began leaving the stage. However, an ear-piercing sound rang out, almost as if a cord was plugged out of an amplifier: the bassist had tripped on a cord, and fell on her stomach. She was about to get on her feet, and the audience froze: something blue-and-white was visible on the stage. I double checked to make sure it actually was what I thought it was, and decided that now would be a good moment to make my leave.

“ _Noooooo!_ ” a young woman’s yell echoed in the auditorium as I quietly slipped through the doorway.


	11. Christmas Party

As the weeks went by, the temperature dropped day by day, forcing me to wear my winter attire once again. Soon came December, the ending of the second semester drawing near. During the past few months, I’ve kept in contact with Hirasawa almost weekly. I didn’t want her to be worried about me, like last summer. We mostly just messaged each other, but sometimes I paid a visit to Hirasawa residence. This was one of those occasions.

I had just stepped inside, and had followed Hirasawa upstairs to the living room. Their coffee table had been replaced by a kotatsu, which was only natural. I walked over to the kotatsu, taking a seat at my usual spot, and slipping my feet under the blanket, while Hirasawa headed to the kitchen to prepare some tea. Huh, now where might Yui be? I’d imagine her to be the first to laze around under the blanket…

“Ah, Sugimoto-kun, hello,” a voice next to me greeted.

Confused, I glanced down to my left, and flinched. It was Yui. She was completely under the kotatsu, and had poked her head out.

“It sure is cold outside,” she murmured as she slipped her head back under the blanket.

Hirasawa, who had noticed the situation from the kitchen, put her hands on her hips. “Sis, get out of there. You’re not a child anymore.”

Yui poked her head out, this time from the opposite side. “But Ui~, it’s cold out there.”

“Then you won’t get any snacks,” Hirasawa threatened, continuing on preparing the tea.

Yui slipped back under the blanket, and soon popped her head out right next to me, making me flinch once again.

“Sugimoto-kun~, Ui is being cruel…” she sniveled.

“You’re acting like I could influence the situation in any way…” I muttered.

Yui raised the blanket with her hand, a shine of confidence in her eyes. “You could slip under here, too. Then there would be two of us and only one of her.”

I put my hands behind my neck, leaning back and gazing out of the balcony door. “She’s still the one controlling the snacks.”

Yui seemed to understand this, and continued on pondering, clearly planning her next move. Meanwhile, Hirasawa got the tea done and carried the tray over to the kotatsu, setting it down in the middle, and taking a seat across from me. She raised the blanket, peeking under it.

“Sis, I made some hot chocolate for you,” she called out with a soothing voice.

A second later, Yui popped out of the kotatsu right next to Hirasawa, and quickly sat up. Man, Hirasawa really knows how her sister works. Yui reached over, grabbed the steaming cocoa mug from the platter, and took a careful sip. Her satisfied expression made me smirk.

As I was grabbing a cup of tea from the platter, Hirasawa asked her sister: “Are you going to tell him about it?”

“About what?” I asked.

Yui seemed to remember something. “Ah, about the Christmas party!”

“…the what?” I muttered, confused a bit.

“We’re hosting a Christmas party for my club members in a few days,” she explained. “Would you like to come too?”

I was about to sip my tea, but the question made me halt. “Me?”

Once again, I’d have to meet a bunch of unfamiliar teenage girls. Other than that, I was actually a bit interested. “Uh, well, what activities have you planned?”

“Well, apart from exchanging gifts, not much. But we’ll figure something out on the spot, it’ll be fun,” Yui explained, smiling all the way.

I sipped my tea and nodded. “Exchanging gifts, huh? Guess I should bring something.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything great or expensive, we’re doing it just for fun,” Hirasawa said, jumping into the conversation. “My sis and I will handle the food and decorations.”

Yeah, right. You’re just going to do everything by yourself, gal. Instead of saying the former out loud, I just nodded and sipped my tea.

Couple of days later, the night before the Christmas party, I was still awake, struggling with wrapping paper.

“Ugh, how the fuck do I… a-ha! There, perfect!”

I can’t remember the last time I’ve wrapped a present. Regardless, my work wasn’t half-bad. On my computer desk laid a small blue packet with a white ribbon. I carefully moved it aside, and swept all the debris off the desk straight into the trash bin. I glanced at my watch, which told me it was 3 o’clock at night. Man, I would be sleeping right about now, but I just happened to remember that I hadn’t wrapped the present yet, so I had to go digging around the storage room for wrapping paper, which took me a while. Well, now that it’s done, I can safely hit the hay.

I woke up at afternoon. After stretching for a bit and throwing some clothes on, I headed downstairs to make myself some late breakfast. After eating the meal, I returned to my room. Maybe I should play some games to pass the time until the Christmas party starts. I sat down at the desk, pressing the computer’s power button. As the computer was starting up, my phone began to vibrate. Hirasawa was calling me. Hm, some last minute changes to plans, maybe?

“Yeah?” I answered the call, simultaneously typing in my password on the keyboard.

“Um, I was just wondering where you are,” Hirasawa said.

“What are you talking about…?” I confusedly muttered as I finally got logged in.

I glanced at the computer’s clock. The party had started half an hour ago. I’d slept longer than I thought.

“…god damn it…”

I quickly stood up, and ran to the closet. “Sorry, I overslept! I’ll be right there,” I hastily said before ending the call.

I threw my red hoodie on my shoulders, slipping the small blue present into its pocket, and headed downstairs to get my coat and boots on. I began heading towards Hirasawa residence in a quick pace.

I leaned against Hirasawa’s mailbox, catching my breath. After my pulse finally returned to normal, I walked to the front door. I could faintly hear a group of girls conversing upstairs. Well, here goes nothing, I guess. I rang the doorbell, and the conversation died down immediately. I heard approaching steps, and, as I expected, Hirasawa answered the door.

“Hi, I was beginning to wonder where you were. Come on in,” she greeted, beckoning me to step inside, which I did.

After closing the door, I took off my coat and handed it to her. “Yeah, sorry that I’m late,” I apologized with a sheepish smile.

Hirasawa shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nice that you were able to come in the first place.”

She escorted me up the stairs, and as I turned to face the living room, it felt like the whole world was staring at me.

From what I later heard, the following happened few minutes ago: Hirasawa, Yui, the spectacle-headed girl and the club members (their advisor included) were having a conversation around the kotatsu. The sound of the doorbell had confused everyone except for the Hirasawa sisters.

“Are you expecting more visitors?” the dark haired girl had asked Yui.

“Yeah, Ui’s friend is also coming over,” Yui had answered.

Everyone seemed to understand the situation, until Hirasawa let me inside, and I opened my mouth. The sound of my voice had caused more confusion.

The girl with a hairband had asked: “W-would this ‘Ui’s friend’ happen to be a girl by any change?”

“No, of course not. Why would _he_ be?” Yui answered, confused about the question.

And then I had walked upstairs, which brings us back to the current situation.

I’d got myself into yet another staring competition. This time I was against three unfamiliar girls and a woman. Though, the girls weren’t _that_ unfamiliar. I’ve seen them at the festival, after all. It still didn’t change the fact that this was an awkward and anxious moment. Four against one, completely unfair.

Yui, however, didn’t seem to care about the situation. “Sugimoto-kun! Merry Christmas!”

It helped me to come back to my senses. With hesitating steps, I slowly walked over to the kotatsu. Hirasawa, who was sitting next to her sister, scooched over to make some room for me, so I sat down next to her. At that moment, I noticed all the food and snacks on top of the kotatsu. Everything looked delicious, especially the roast turkey in the middle. Hirasawa poured me a glass of non-alcoholic champagne, setting it down in front of me. I just nodded for a thanks, since I was too anxious to say a word.

Gathering up some courage, I raised my gaze to the three girls sitting right across from me, all staring at me. Shit, better man up and defuse the situation by myself.

“Uh, hi,” I greeted them, trying to spark a conversation.

They didn’t answer, and the silence grew even more awkward. Maybe I should introduce myself?

“So, um, I’m Sugimoto. Sugimoto Eiji.”

Nope, they still kept quiet. Running out of ideas, I glanced over at Hirasawa, who was just spectating the situation. God damn it, what now…? Wait, I got it!

“I, uh, saw your performance at the festival couple of months ago. Honestly speaking, it was the best I’ve seen in a long time.”

They still kept quiet for a while, until the dark haired girl was the first one to speak: “…really?”

I nodded. “Yeah, of course. You were the one singing, right? It sounded great.”

“…did you see the _whole_ performance?” she asked.

Now why the hell would she be asking something like tha— …oh, yeah, the blue-and-white thing…

I quickly came up with a lie: “U-uh, pretty much, but since I was in a hurry, I had to leave right after the song was over. Why, was there some kind of an extra?”

“E-eh? N-no, not at all, j-just asking,” the girl muttered, trying to hide her blush. Yes, another successful lie!

Now that the ice was broken, I could conversate more; “Yui-san has already told me about you guys, but just to double-check… Akiyama-san, Tainaka-san, and Kotobuki-san, correct?”

The girls gave me approving nods and answers. So, the dark haired girl was Akiyama Mio, the girl with the hairband was Tainaka Ritsu, and the blonde girl was Kotobuki Tsumugi. These three girls played that awesome song with Yui. Though… there’s still something bugging me about Akiyama and Tainaka… Urgh, it’s right on the tip of my tongue…

“What about me?” the woman sitting next to me asked, cutting my thought process short. God damn it, I was just about to figure it out!

I glanced at her. “What? What about you?”

She had long, brown hair. She was wearing glasses, and was maybe in her late twenties. Yeah, no, I don’t recognize her. Should I?

“I’m Sawako, their club’s advisor,” she introduced herself, a bit offended.

I was about to say something approving, until I felt Yui tapping my shoulder, so I leaned closer to her.

“Don’t let her appearance fool you,” she whispered to me. Whatever she meant by that, I’ll keep it in mind.

Tainaka jumped enthusiastically on her feet. “All right! Now that everyone has got to know each other, let’s exchange presents!”

“Yeah!” Yui yelled.

Should I yell something too? _FUCK YEAH, BITCHES!_ I imagined a scenario where I would shout something like that, and almost burst into laughter.

Sawako dug out a present. “I also brought one. I was originally going to give it to my boyfriend…” I… feel unsafe, like she’s going to snap at any minute.

“Alright then, let’s begin!” she announced, and made some room on top of the kotatsu by pushing all of its contents aside.

Following the others, I also placed my present on the empty space. It was a lot smaller than the other presents. Sawako instructed us to keep passing the presents from one to another until she would stop singing. Her singing voice was… well, let’s just say that I’d bet 1000 yens that she has been in a heavy metal band.

“STOP!” she suddenly yelled. It was almost as if the whole group was sighing out of relief.

Without waiting any further, Sawako tore her present open. It was some kind of a red box… No, it was a Jack-in-the-box, which struck her right in the forehead. Everyone fell silent, cold sweat dripping from their faces.

“…I’m going home” I muttered, sensing danger.

Hirasawa, however, grabbed me by the wrist. I thought she was trying to prevent me from leaving, but actually she was clinging on to me out of fear. Can’t blame her.

“This is the best Christmas ever!” she shouted, accompanied by a psychotic laugh.

Now I really felt like escaping…

After the situation was over, others began opening their presents. I was watching their doings, until I noticed that Akiyama had gotten my present. Inside was a small, black velvet jewelry box. Opening the box, her eyes were met with a beautiful, shining bracelet. She was looking at it in awe.

Tainaka glanced at the box, flinched, and turned to face me. “Wasn’t that from you? W-what in the world did you pay for it!?”

I shrugged. “Nothing, I got it from my sister.”

It was the truth. I knew all the other party guests would be girls, and girls like jewelries, don’t they? So, I had asked my sister if she had anything to spare. Luckily, she didn’t ask any questions, and gave me that velvet box.

“From your sister, huh?” Akiyama muttered, taking the bracelet out of the box.

She rolled up her left sleeve and put the bracelet on, admiring it from different angles. “It’s pretty.”

I looked at her for a bit, and finally decided to open the flat present I’d been fiddling with for a while. It was a CD case: _Meta Meta – Ultimate Album From Hell._ Damn, I’ve actually been looking to buy this for a while.

“That one’s mine,” Sawako noted.

I couldn’t help but smirk. “Lady, you’ve got a great taste for music.”

“Hold on, you were going to give _that_ to your boyfriend?” Yui asked, pointing at the case.

After a few seconds of distressing silence, Sawako burst into tears: “Yes, you got a problem with that!?”

“…I’m going home,” I muttered, having just about enough of this shit.

“Wait, we haven’t opened _our_ presents yet,” Yui said, meaning herself and her sister. Well, I guess I’ll stay for a bit longer…

Hirasawa got a scarf, and Yui got a pair of gloves. From what I could pick up from their conversation, both of them were respectively lacking those things beforehand, and had bought them for each other. Though, it was a miracle the presents happened to find their ways to the right people… Well, whatever, their reactions still brought a smile on my face.

With the present exchange done, Tainaka once again stood up. “Next up, everyone will do a short performance!”

“A what now…?” I muttered, and turned to face Hirasawa.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you about it!” she said in a panic.

“Calm down, Ui-chan, they’re not that big of a deal…” Tainaka muttered with a sorry smile.

Hirasawa, however, was still looking worried. I sighed, and turned to face her. “Relax. I’ll come up with something, you guys can go ahead.”

Hirasawa went first. She put on a small ventriloquist act with hand dolls. What the hell, when did she learn to do that? Next up was Yui, who realized she hadn’t prepared anything, so she jumped on her feet.

“Air guitar!” she yelled, playing an invisible guitar.

Tainaka joined her. “Air drums!”

Yeah, now I get why she said earlier that this wasn’t a big deal. So why was Hirasawa sweating about it so much? Next up was Akiyama. She disappeared downstairs, and soon came back, wearing a (very) short Santa dress. Clearly embarrassed, she ran back downstairs. A quick glance was enough for me, and I turned my gaze to the ceiling. That’s an image I won’t be forgetting any time soon…

Then, it was Kotobuki’s turn. “I’m imitating something!”

She imitated… something. Impaled head, perhaps? I decided not to say anything, my mindset being too gruesome for these ladies. Apparently, it was a sunfish. What even is a sunfish?

Sawako stood up. “Alright, next up—!”

The lifted her shirt, exposing her stomach, slapping it with her palm. The mark turned bright red.

“—maple leaf!”

“…I’m going home,” I muttered.

“That joke is getting old,” Tainaka muttered back, unamused.

“I’m not joking, my sanity is at stake here!” I retorted, accidentally making the group chuckle.

I looked at them for a few seconds, and laid down on the floor, my hands behind my neck.

“Have you come up with anything?” Hirasawa asked me.

“…no,” I murmured, staring at the ceiling.

Yui jumped on her feet. “Wait here!” she commanded, before running upstairs.

I think I knew what she had on her mind. Well, it’s better than nothing, I guess. My first public show, oh boy, can’t wait… Hold on, I can feel something on my stomach. I glanced downwards to check it, and… it was Hirasawa’s hand. She was massaging my stomach.

Trying my best to keep my cool, I glanced at her. “…what are you doing?”

Hirasawa finally seemed to notice the situation, and quickly pulled her hand away. “Oh, um, uh…”

We both blushed. All the other girls staring at us didn’t help at all.

“I-I’ve always done this to my sis, so I unintentionally…” she muttered in a low voice, clearly embarrassed. I wasn’t sure what to think.

The girls around the table kept glancing at each other, until Tainaka decided to open her mouth: “So, um, how long have you two been dating?”

Quickly sitting up, Hirasawa and I yelled in unison: “We’re not dating!”

“I… see…” Tainaka muttered, confused a bit.

Yui returned downstairs, carrying her Les Paul, as I had guessed.

“Play something!” she said, handing the guitar over to me.

“Uh, right…” I muttered, taking the guitar.

Checking the tune, I decided to play a guitar solo from one of my favorite metal albums. It was a bit complex, but somehow I managed to play it without messing up, despite being a bit nervous due to all the people watching me. I felt quite proud of myself. After the solo was over, I glanced over at my ‘audience’, who started clapping sincerely.

“Eh, it sounds better with an amplifier…” I murmured, a sheepish smile on my face.

We spent the next hours eating, chatting, and playing games. Though, most of the time I just stayed quiet, since I didn’t have anything to contribute to their discussions. Despite that, I enjoyed myself. As the sun set, it was time for us to head home. The Hirasawa sisters escorted us outside, where we said our goodbyes, and began heading home. Since I didn’t really feel like walking with the rest of the group, I decided to take a slight detour.

As I walked through the darkened streets, I noticed something, and halted. I glanced upwards: it was snowing. The light of the streetlamps reflected from the small snowflakes, making them shine beautifully. It was like this town was showered with diamonds. I felt blessed. Once again, I had met new, nice people today. Though, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. Where has my depression gone? Why can I suddenly smile genuinely? Why me, and not someone else? Someone, who has done only good in their life, and not me, who has only hurt people. I stared at the snowfall for a while, until I slapped myself in the face, and resumed walking. I’ve got to stop being so pessimistic. I’ve been blessed with these wonderful people, so instead of questioning it, I should just embrace it. Easier said than done, but I’ll try.


	12. The Second Year

“Big brother, wake up. Please, wake up,” a small, cute voice called me.

I slowly opened my sleepy eyes, and found my sister, Tamiko, standing next to my bed.

“Whaaaat…” I murmured, almost growling.

Tamiko put her hands on her hips. “You promised you would accompany me to the school today.”

Due to my sleepiness, I had trouble thinking. “…the hell are you talking about? School doesn’t start in days.”

“I meant Sakuragaoka. They put up the accepted students board today, remember? You yourself said that you’d accompany me there,” she explained.

“Ah, that…” I muttered, finally remembering the promise. However, I just turned my head away from her, pulling the blanket over my head. “I’m still sleepy, so let’s go in a few hours… or tomorrow…”

I could hear Tamiko mumbling something out of annoyance, until she stopped. Finally, I can resume sleeping…

“… _Ecchan._ ”

Snapping awake, I quickly sat up, kicking the blanket off of me. “I told you to not call me by that name!”

“Well, at least you’re finally awake,” she noted with a satisfied smile. “Get dressed up and come downstairs, we’ll be going by train.”

After she left my room, it took me a few seconds to recover from the idea that she had outdone me. But, I just hate that nickname so much… well, whatever, I’ll get my revenge someday. After stretching a bit, I threw on some clothes, including my red hoodie, and moseyed downstairs to my sister, who was wearing her junior high uniform. She practically forced me to gulp my coffee down in under a minute, and we headed off to the train station. Why buy alarm clocks, when you have a little sister?

So yeah, I had promised that I’d accompany Tamiko to Sakuragaoka. I don’t even know why. Maybe I wanted to be a good big brother, or maybe I wanted to scope out some schoolgirls. Or maybe I thought I’d bump into someone I know. In any case, for the longest time I thought that Tamiko would apply to Kasumimashita, like her two older brothers. But no; apparently, ever since elementary school, she had planned on applying to Sakuragaoka. However, she’s not the only girl I know who has applied to that school.

Moments later the train arrived at our stop, and we continued the journey on foot. I began recognizing places from my festival visit last year, and soon we stood in front of the white building of Sakuragaoka. The many cherry blossoms on the yard were blooming, which was actually quite a pretty sight. Guess that’s where the school’s name comes from. Dozens of schoolgirls from many different junior high schools were roaming around the campus. And, as expected, there wasn’t any other 16-year-old guys. I felt vulnerable. We walked to the front of the auditorium, where the accepted students board was located.

“I… I got in! Big brother, I got in!” Tamiko rejoiced as she spotted her name on the list.

I smirked, patting her on the head. “Congratulations, nice to know that at least one Sugimoto isn’t an idiot.”

“Hasn’t it always been obvious?” Tamiko quipped.

She spotted some of her schoolmates further away from us, so she gave me the permission to go back home, and ran to her friends. Slipping my hands into my hoodie’s pockets, I couldn’t help but smile as I watched my skittering little sister. So many years we’ve attended the same schools, until now. Well, I don’t think she’ll have any problems in Sakuragaoka. At least I hope so. Out of curiosity, I turned to check the list out once more, reading it more thoroughly. Wait a minute… That’s…

“Sugimoto-kun? What are you doing here?” I heard a familiar voice right behind me.

I turned around and found Hirasawa standing there, dressed in her junior high uniform. She cocked her head confusedly, still waiting for an answer.

“Oh? Uh, well, I just accompanied my sister here,” I explained.

Hirasawa just got even more confused. “Your sister applied here?”

I nodded, and pointed my thumb towards the board behind me. “Yeah, and she actually got in.”

Understanding the situation, Hirasawa began scoping the board out herself. After a few seconds, I saw a flash of joy in her eyes.

“I got in, too!”

I, of course, had spotted her name earlier, but still decided to act surprised. “Well, would you look at that. Congratulations to you, too.”

After thinking for a couple of seconds, I decided to point at a group of girls further away. “By the way, my sister is that light haired gal, in case you want to get to know her.”

Hirasawa gazed at my sister, a bit puzzled. “How come she looks so European?”

“Ah, our mother’s mother is from Northern Europe, so we have some European genes. It seems that my sister has inherited most of them,” I explained as I turned to look at Tamiko, who had her back turned to us.

After looking at her for a bit, I turned back to Hirasawa. “I’m sure you’ll be friends. She’s nice and kind, just like you.” I quickly realized what I had just said and wanted to reword the latter part of my sentence, but then decided to just it be.

“Thank you,” Hirasawa said with a warm smile.

“Ui!” another familiar voice could be heard.

We turned to face the voice. It was Yui, who was a nervous wreck, almost shaking in her boots.

“Why are you so nervous?” Hirasawa asked her. ‘Nervous’ was a complete understatement. “My name is there. I passed.”

Yui flinched. “R-really?”

Her expression turned exited… and a second later tears started dripping from her eyes. I had to take a step back as she ran to hug her little sister.

“Sis, I can’t breathe…” Hirasawa muttered, smiling embarrassedly.

As Yui started congratulating her sister and thanking everyone around us, I couldn’t help but feel a little concerned. “Now she’s lost it…”

However, both of them looked so happy that I decided to give up on the witty remarks and just smile. A sound of camera shutter made me turn my gaze. It was the members of Yui’s club; Tainaka, Kotobuki, and Akiyama, the latter holding a camera. Wait, did I just get into a photo? They walked to us, each giving Hirasawa their congratulations. However, they soon noticed me, too.

“Wait, what’s this guy doing here?” Tainaka asked, taken aback due to my presence.

I frowned, unamused. “I have a name, you know…”

“Yeah, why are you here, Sugimoto-kun?” Yui asked me, finally letting go of her sister. Don’t tell me she didn’t notice me from the very beginning…

Before I could even open my mouth, Hirasawa explained to them what I had told her.

“You mean the sister who gave you this bracelet?” Akiyama asked, raising her left wrist with the aforementioned thing around it.

I nodded. “The very same. Nice to see that you like it.”

Startled a bit, she hid her left hand behind her back, blushing a bit. So, she’s as easily embarrassed as she was at the Christmas party, huh. Gal, at least let me take you out for a dinner before you start acting like that… I noticed Tainaka glancing at both Hirasawa and I.

She scratched her head, puzzled. “Seriously, are you two sure you’re not da—"

“We’re not dating!” Hirasawa and I yelled in unison, getting a few confused looks from the people around us.

“Alright, got it…” Tainaka muttered, backing down.

Since they clearly had their own plans for the day, I decided to say my goodbyes and head back home. Maybe I’ll try to catch some sleep.

A week later, the school had already begun. I had entered my second year in high school. Man, a year sure went by fast. Hopefully these two years will be just as swift. Speaking of swift, I was running to school after sleeping through the alarm. It was already lunch break by the time I got to school. Stopping by the cafeteria to buy myself a sandwich, I headed to the basement, and stepped into the club room.

“Morning,” I greeted my friends, breathing a bit heavily.

“It’s noon,” Tadaaki quipped from the couch, a game controller in his hands.

“Fuck you,” I answered as I threw my schoolbag in the corner.

I headed to the kitchen area, where a freshly made pot of coffee was waiting for me. Wonderful. As I was pouring myself a cupful, I noticed something, and turned around.

“Hold on, where’s Ichiro?”

Tadaaki kept his eyes on his video game. “He left just as the lunch break started. He didn’t feel like wasting his Friday afternoon at school.”

He kept playing for a while, until he paused the game and turned around to face me. “Actually, I think I’ll do the same. I didn’t catch much sleep last night, you see.”

“Why don’t you just sleep through the classes? It’ll count as attendance,” I suggested, carrying the coffee cup over to the couches, and taking a seat.

“Don’t you remember? The next class is chemistry,” he reminded me.

I grimaced. “Oh, yeah. The chemistry teacher is a real asshole. I still remember the time he caught one of our classmates dozing off…”

Tadaaki nodded. “That’s exactly why. I’d stay here, but as you know, the basement is off-limits during classes.”

“Well, suit yourself. I guess I can handle a few hours of school without you clowns,” I said with a shrug, and tore open the plastic around the sandwich.

As the lunch break ended, Tadaaki went home, while I headed to the class. Sure, it’ll be a bit boring without those two, and the chemistry teacher is a fucknut, but I still like chemistry. Well, at least the half of it.

“…what?” I muttered to my classmate.

“I said that we won’t be doing any experiments today, we’ll just be studying theory,” he repeated himself.

With a sigh, I muttered: “Thanks for the warning.” I turned around, and left the classroom.

Well, there goes that chemistry class. I don’t really care for studying from a book, especially when there’s a better alternative, like mixing chemicals and such. So, where to now? I can’t go home. My mother was really angry when she found me sleeping through the morning classes, so I don’t even want to imagine what she’s do to me if I came back home now. I didn’t really feel like wasting my time around the town, either. I guess there’s only one option left. I began heading towards the third floor of the west wing.

Whoever designed this school completely overestimated the amount of students that would attend here. Most of the classes were held in the east wing, while only a few were at the lower floors of the west wing. The rest of the classrooms are used as club rooms and storage rooms. Actually, I don’t think there’s any “normal” classrooms on the third floor of the west wing. It suited me just fine, since no one would catch me here.

I walked to the end of the hallway, and slid a door open, stepping inside the dark room. After finding the light switch, I turned on the lights, closing the door behind me. Room’s windows were covered by mountains of cardboard boxes and shelves filled with god knows what. I guess you could call this place a ‘redundant storage’. It was filled with stuff that didn’t have a place in the official storage rooms and such. It was a perfect hiding place, since no one had any reason to come here. I found this place last winter, when I was roaming around the school’s hallways out of boredom.

Most of the time I go through the contents of the boxes. I’ve found old photo albums, logbooks, classroom diaries and what not. Did you know that half a dozen students were temporarily expelled for having a chair fight? I’ve also found an old CRT TV, a VCR player, and a cassette player. With these, I could not only read, but also watch and listen about my school’s history, which is actually more interesting than it sounds. However, right now I didn’t feel like examining anything. I just wanted to take a nap. For that purpose, there’s an old, broken gym mattress right behind one of the shelves. I turned off the lights, waited for a while until my eyes got adjusted to the darkness, and walked around a shelf to the mattress. Taking my uniform’s coat off, I laid down with a yawn. After a bit, I finally drifted off.

Snow… I’ve only seen this much snow when I visited my father’s hometown up north. But this wasn’t my father’s hometown. Instead of beautiful fields and tall mountains, there was nothing. I didn’t see anything beyond my own nose. And the snow just kept coming, I was ancles deep in it. However, I didn’t feel cold, but anxious. I was alone. I began walking with heavy steps, until I realized that my feet passed through the snow as if it was nothing but air. After some walking, I started hearing humming. I kept going through the white apocalypse, trying to make sense of the humming. Almost as if it was very dampened music, or singing, perhaps. I looked up towards the white sky, where the snow was falling from. However, one of the snowflakes was green. Or maybe it wasn’t a snowflake, but something else. I wonder if I could catch it…? However, I suddenly stepped on nothing, dripping over, and falling through the whiteness.

Something blinded me. Fucking noobs can’t use flashbangs properly. However, as I carefully opened my eyes, I realized the situation: someone had turned on the lights. I squinted to cover my vision from the blinding light, which soon was covered by a silhouette of a person, followed by a familiar feminine voice.

“Good morning, Sugimoto-san.”

The figure stooped towards me with her hands on her hips. Now I could recognize that black, almost grayish hair.

“Well? Are you awake, or what?” she continued.

“Yeah, yeah. Get out of my way,” I muttered in a sleepy voice, and sat up.

I could see a bit better now. The girl was Hironaka, the representative of my fellow class, and a star member of the Athletics Club. I’ve known her for some time, and let’s just say that we don’t see eye to eye about anything. I kept glancing at her for a while, until my gaze drifted to her skirt. I was a bit curious, yes, but I didn’t feel like getting kicked in the face, so I quickly turned my head the other way, and stood up.

“You know, this is the third time I’ve caught you sleeping. How long have you been here, anyway?” she asked me with a frustrated sigh.

I checked my watch, which told me that the classes had ended half an hour ago. God damn, I really got to start setting up alarms for my naps.

“Since the lunch break.”

Hironaka sighed again, and became serious. “I could report you to the teachers anytime, you know.”

“So, why won’t you do it?” I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

“Because I’ve known you since junior high. It wouldn’t change a thing, you would just pretend to listen to their scolds and find another place to nap during classes,” she muttered.

I smiled and crouched down to grab my coat and schoolbag. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks for keeping me safe.”

I walked past her and around the shelf towards the door, and I could hear her sighing once again. “You’re hopeless, Sugimoto-san…”

I couldn’t help but snicker as I slid the door open. However, my laughing was cut short when I realized that the door didn’t open.

“…what?”

I tried again, but to no effort. What the hell is going on here? Hearing my struggling, Hironaka peeked from behind the shelf with a confused expression. I demonstrated the situation to her by trying to open the door, which refused to do so.

“Why did you come here, anyway?” I asked her.

“I was asked to bring a box here,” she answered.

Keeping quiet of a bit, I kept my eyes on the door, and nervously asked: “Were you alone? Does anyone know that we’re here?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Hironaka, who finally seemed to understand the situation. “…n-no. A teacher gave me this task, after which she left the building.”

I kept glancing at her for a while, until I resumed struggling with the door. As it still didn’t want to open, I took a step back and kicked it out of frustration.

“Why the hell did you even lock this!?”

Hironaka tried her best to keep her cool. “As you probably know, these classrooms haven’t seen much use. That’s why the doors are still as old as the school itself, meaning that you can’t open the lock from the inside. Their locks are also very unstable.”

I didn’t understand the point of her documentary, until she highlighted the latter sentence. “So, I… I guess I might’ve slammed the door shut too hard when I spotted you sleeping here…”

Oh, so I’m stuck here, huh? Wonderful, simply amazing. I turned back towards the door, breathing heavily, and clenching my fists.

“Fuck!” I cried as I gave the door another kick. Nope, it still didn’t budge.

What a shitty situation. Since we were at the third floor, windows were out of option. I also couldn’t call my friends over to help us, since Tadaaki was probably sleeping and Ichiro was most likely jerking off or something. I completely lost my self-control. I really wanted to punch something. I turned around, and immediately found a suitable target. I took couple of steps forward, and threw my fist.

The cardboard box rumbled off the shelf, decorated with a dent left by my fist. Phew, that felt good… However, I soon noticed Hironaka, who had crouched down, and was covering her head with her hands. It was almost as if she was shaking out of fear. Realizing what my temperament had caused, I crouched down, facing her.

“Hey…” I tried calling her.

She glanced at me from the corner of her teary eye, so I continued: “…you thought I was going to punch you?”

“…it’s… you’re just… that kind of person, you know…” she answered in a low voice, sniveling a bit.

Still keeping my voice soothing, I asked her: “What do you mean?”

“…I’ve seen you fighting people, many times. Almost every time they start out of nowhere. It’s very scary to watch…” she explained, keeping her eyes on the ground.

So, despite of her cool-headed and responsible nature, I still manage to scare her. To be honest, I felt kind of bad about it. As slowly and carefully as I could, I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Listen, Hironaka, that’s in the past. I’ve changed. Maybe I was like that due to the people in Yukinokawa or something, but not anymore.”

Hironaka slowly raised her gaze from the floor towards me. Ugh, I don’t even know why I felt like explaining myself to her. Maybe I wanted to get rid of the stigma of being a violent delinquent. I mean, I still am one a bit, but not as much as in junior high.

As she seemed to calm down a bit, I took my hand off her shoulder and stood up. “Let’s talk about this later, after someone let’s us out of this god damn room.”

As I finished my sentence, I heard a jingling of a keyring from the other side of the door, which soon slid right open. On the other side was the school’s janitor.

“Well now, I thought I heard some ruckus from here. You’ve got to be careful with these old doors,” he said, and stood aside. “Come on, then. Get going.”

Hironaka and I glanced at each other. Thanking the janitor, we left the room and began heading towards the lobby.

“Listen, Sugimoto-san…” Hironaka said.

“Yeah?”

She glared at me, clearly annoyed. “Never touch me again.”

I just smirked at her, which caused her to become even more annoyed. As we got to the lobby, I headed to the shoe lockers, while she continued on to the east wing, probably to retrieve her schoolbag. I didn’t plan on waiting for her, so I changed my shoes, and began heading home.

_…I wonder how Tamiko is doing…?_

I was in the middle of writing notes when the bell rang, ending the school day. Sakuragaoka was everything that I was hoping for. It also seemed a lot calmer than my previous schools. I’ve only been here a week, and already gotten used to this place. But, to my misfortune, a lot of my friends had gone to other schools. And those few who study here are in other classes. I can’t even walk home with them, since they have club activities after school. And I haven’t found a club that I’d me interested in. I still have the club pamphlets under my desk. I’ve read them through many times, but nothing really interests me.

With a sigh, I started packing my bag. I stood up, grabbing my bag, and glancing once more at the cherry blossoms outside the window.

“Excuse me? Are you Sugimoto?”

Taken aback a bit, I turned around to face the voice. It was one of my classmates. Her brown hair was tied into a ponytail, or something resembling it. She cocked her head, still waiting for an answer.

“Uh, yes, I am,” I answered, a bit puzzled.

The girl smiled, and introduced herself: “I’m Hirasawa Ui.”

For the sake of good manners, I did the same, despite being a bit confused: “Sugimoto Tamiko. Uh, how do you know my name?”

“Your brother told me. He thought that you and I could get acquainted.”

Now, I was even more confused. “Eiji-chan told you? How do you know him?”

“We’ve been friends for over a year. Hasn’t he told about me?” she asked, being as confused as I am.

I slowly shook my head. “No, not at all. I have no idea about who you are.”

“O-oh, is that so…” she muttered, looking a bit awkward.

However, she brightened up quickly, and asked: “Ah, I almost forgot. Would you like to walk home together?”

“Well, I travel by train,” I told her.

“The station is along my route to home. We could walk there, if you don’t mind,” she suggested.

I thought about it for a moment. For a whole week, I’ve been going home alone. It had left me feeling a bit lonely. It wouldn’t hurt to make new friends, especially when they are in the same class.

I nodded with a smile. “Okay, fine by me.”

We exited the classroom, and after stopping by the shoe lockers, we began walking towards the train station. I glanced up towards a partly clouded sky. What a fine Friday afternoon.

After walking for a bit, I asked: “So, what do you think about my brother?”

“Oh, um…” Ui muttered, glancing upwards while thinking. The pause felt kind of nervous.

Finally, she continued: “Well, he’s a nice person, and… uh…” Clearly, she didn’t manage to come up with anything else.

“That’s all?” I asked her.

“Y-yes, eheh…” she said, laughing sheepishly.

“Well, _why_ is he a nice person?” I presented her with another question.

“Uh, well… I’m not even sure. He just is,” she muttered. She soon turned to face me. “What’s he like to you?”

I had already prepared for that question: “As you mentioned, Eiji-chan is a nice person. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but he also has his darker side. He has… should I say, a problem controlling his anger. He also has a nasty mouth, though he tries his best to control it. I… I’m not sure if I should tell you, but… he’s a bit of a delinquent.”

I glanced at Ui, who kept quiet, listening to every word. Since she didn’t say anything, I continued: “You said you and he have been friends for over a year? Back then, Eiji-chan was living the most difficult moments of his life. He was constantly in trouble, and was almost kicked out of the school. But, for some reason, he calmed down a bit during winter.”

I once again glanced at Ui, who seemed surprised. So, she actually didn’t know these things about my brother? I wonder if I should’ve even told her those…

As I looked at her, I remembered something: “Back when he and I were in junior high, I heard a rumor about two girls from another school coming to pick him up. I assume one of those girls was you?”

She nodded slightly.

“Who was the other one?”

“Oh, she’s Suzuki Jun, she’s actually in our class. Um, I guess her name doesn’t ring any bells, does it?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, not at all. Eiji-chan doesn’t really talk about his doings. Although, one thing has bothered me for the past year. Usually, when he goes out to hang out with friends, he always mentions their names. But, for some reason, he sometimes doesn’t. When I try to ask him about it, he just says that ‘I wouldn’t know them’.”

I turned to face Ui. “That friend is you, right?”

“U-uh, I guess… I hope it doesn’t bother you,” she said, a bit unsurely.

“No, of course not. Actually, I think it’s because of _you_ that he has begun to calm down,” I said with a smile.

This caused Ui to blush a bit, which made me smile even more.

However, I quickly became serious. “I… I hope this conversation hasn’t changed your opinion about Eiji-chan.”

“Huh? No, not at all. To be honest, I’ve been a bit worried about him sometimes, but I guess I shouldn’t be, since he has such a caring little sister,” she explained, and it was my turn to blush.

At the end of the day, I had made a new friend. Even though Eiji and I don’t go to the same school anymore, he still somehow managed to help me. My brother sure is hopeless, but very thoughtful at the same time.


	13. The Warm Days

I knocked on Tamiko’s door. “Hey, I got it fixed!”

Her desk fan suddenly decided to stop working, during the summer vacation of all times. For some reason, she thought that I might be able to fix it. Well, since she asked so nicely, I couldn’t refuse. All this morning I’ve done nothing but tried to get it in working order. It was a bit frustrating, and at one point I wondered what would happen if I smashed it against the corner of my desk. However, I soon found the problem, and got it working.

The door opened, and my sister, who clearly was suffering from the heat, took the fan, thanking me all the way until she closed the door. Job well done, I guess. But man, it sure was hot. I wiped my forehead with the hem of my shirt, and returned to my room. As I took a seat on the computer chair, I glanced over to the corner, where my schoolbag laid, gathering dust. The summer vacation started couple of days ago. I’m not going to waste it like the previous one, I’m going to mess around with my friends. Speaking of which, I wonder if they’d like to go out for a soda. I grabbed my phone, and started browsing the contact list.

However, one name caught my eye: Hirasawa Ui. I stared at the phone’s screen for moment, and decided to forget my earlier idea. I sent her a short message.

“Mind if I come over?”

Half a minute passed until my phone let out a message tone, and I checked Hirasawa’s answer: “Not at all. I’m not at home right now, but you can keep my sister company until I come back.”

Without wasting any time, I grabbed my red hoodie, headed downstairs to get my shoes on, and began walking along the path I’ve walked for over a year now. As always, it took me half an hour to reach the Hirasawa residence. Man, even though it’s hot, my hoodie still doesn’t seem to bother me, even though it’s nice and warm during winters. What kind of magic fabric is it made of? I walked to the front door, and rang the doorbell. I waited for a whole minute, but nobody answered. I decided to ring it again, and this time I heard some unintelligible shout. Was that Yui? I decided to be blunt and walk straight in.

As I was taking off my shoes, I heard another shout, this time more understandable: “I’m up here…”

Confused a bit, I began climbing the stairs. When I got to the living room, I was met with Yui, who was torpidly laying on the living room floor. The coffee table had been set aside.

She slowly raised her head, and mumbled: “Oh, it’s you, Sugimoto-kun. Welcome…” After the greeting, she lowered her head back against the floor, clearly not planning on moving.

I walked right next to her, staring at her from above. “So, you didn’t even know that it was I who was at the door?”

“Eh, I guess not…” she mumbled, staring back at me with half-open eyes.

I crouched down a bit. “What if it hadn’t been me, but some burglar, who wouldn’t leave any witnesses?”

She seemed to think about my words, but the goofy smile soon returned on her face. “There’s nothing to steal here…”

Once again, I crouched a bit closer. “What about your guitar?”

Yui frowned a bit. “Why would anyone steal Giita…?”

I crouched even closer, now there being only a small gap between our faces. Though, I didn’t come up with anything more to say, so I just kept glaring at her with stern expression, as she was looking back at me, a bit confused. However, her lazy expression made me smirk, and I finally took a step back.

“By the way, where did your sister go?” I asked her.

Yui kept her gaze at the ceiling. “She said she went out with a friend…”

I answered with an approving nod.

“There’s soda can in the fridge, you can take one if you want… actually, bring me one, too…” she muttered.

“As you wish, Yui-sama,” I stated in a butler-like voice and headed to the kitchen, grabbing two cans of soda.

Returning to the living room, I handed the other one over to Yui, who immediately pressed it against her check, letting out satisfied sounds. I looked around, and then at Yui. After thinking for a bit, I circled her, and joined her in laying on the floor. It actually felt kind of refreshing to just lay on the cool floor. After opening the can and taking a sip, I began staring at the ceiling. It was an activity I’m far too familiar with, but it never gets old. After ten minutes or so, I had already finished my soda, and continued on lazing around on the floor, my hands behind my neck, listening to the singing of cicada.

“How are you doing these days…?” Yui muttered next to me.

I turned to look at her, as she kept staring at the ceiling. “Why you ask?”

“…it’s too quiet, I wanted to talk…”

I kept looking at her for a while, and turned my gaze back to the ceiling. “I’m doing good, I guess.”

“Oh, is that so…” she muttered approvingly.

I guess the conversating was done, since the silence returned once again, as we both continued on looking at the ceiling. Out of nowhere, Yui moved her hand, and pulled out a pink hand fan from under her, beginning fanning herself with it. The silence was just getting to its best part, but the sound of the front door interrupted it.

“I’m home!” a familiar voice announced.

“That must be Ui…” Yui muttered.

I could hear her climbing the stairs up, but soon started hearing more steps. Did she bring someone with her? My reckoning lasted only a few seconds, until Hirasawa appeared upstairs, two other girls following right behind her. I recognized the other one; she was Tainaka. But the other one, with black hair tied into long pigtails, was a complete stranger to me.

“Sis, Ritsu-sun and Azusa-chan are also here,” Hirasawa began talking, but fell quiet as she saw us just lazily laying on the floor.

“Welcome home~”, Yui muttered out a greeting.

It was quiet, the awkward kind of quiet. I had enough of it, so I sat up, raising my hand.

“Yo.”

The two girls behind Hirasawa kept staring at me confusedly, the other one even more so than Tainaka.

“You again!?” Tainaka finally snapped.

“Well, greetings to you, too…” I muttered, unamused by her tone. “What’s _your_ excuse for being here?”

“Ui-chan said that they have watermelon,” she said.

“Huh, you got watermelon?” I asked Hirasawa.

She nodded. “Would like some?”

“Of course, thank you very much,” I said as I finally got on my feet.

Yui, however, just kept laying on the floor, clearly not planning on moving anywhere anytime soon. To motivate her, I began pushing her side with my leg.

“Hey, get moving, you sloth.”

“S-Sugimoto-kun, stop! T-that tickles!” she giggled, and pushed my leg away.

I smirked, and glanced over at the girls. My eyes were drawn to the unknown girl, who just stared at me. I could almost imagine a cluster of question marks popping around her head. Yet another staring contest, huh? It’s been a while since the last one. Hold on, is she the new club member Yui told about some months ago? What was her name again…?

From the corner of my eye, I saw Yui raising her head to get a look at the guests.

“Oh, Azunyan~” she muttered.

Confused, I glanced at Yui, and then at the pigtailed girl. I kept doing this for a while, until I smirked.

“ _Azunyan?_ ” I asked the girl, an amused grin on my face.

This caused the girl to blush and clench her fists. “My name is Azusa!”

Her annoyed but cute expression reminded me of a kitten trying its best to look threatening. The thought was too much for me, and I began laughing. It lasted for some time, until I finally managed to calm myself down.

“Is that so?” I muttered with an amused sigh.

This Azusa gal blushed even more, angrily glaring at me.

“Alright, sorry…” I soothed her.

She finally relaxed, sighed, and muttered: “It wasn’t that funny…”

Still smiling a bit, I glanced over at Hirasawa, who was covering her giggling mouth with her fist. After getting the laughter out of her system, she walked between us.

“Azusa-chan, this is my friend, Sugimoto Eiji-kun. Sugimoto-kun, this is Azusa-chan.”

I raised my hand. “Yo, Azusa- _cha_ —”

“Don’t you even start!” she retorted, cutting my sentence short. “I’m ‘Nakano-san’ to you!”

I was a bit surprised by her eruptive nature, but soon smirked again. “Sure, whatever, Nakano-san.” Man, am I gonna have fun messing with her.

“Sugimoto-kun, would you mind helping me with this?” I heard Hirasawa asking me.

She had grasped Yui’s right arm. I understood what she meant, and grabbed Yui’s left arm. Using my free hand to count to three, we pulled Yui on her feet. She didn’t seem to mind the situation. Following Hirasawa’s instructions, I grabbed Yui by the shoulders and led her few meters to the side, while Hirasawa placed the coffee table on the floor. Next, I led Yui to the table and gently pushed the back of her knees with my foot to make her sit down. She slumped on the table, and resumed being as lazy as before.

Hirasawa nodded to herself. “Take a seat, I’ll go prepare some watermelon,” she said, before disappearing to the kitchen.

By her orders, I sat down at my usual spot, Tainaka and Nakano joining me soon after. I noticed Nakano glancing at me, almost as if she wants to say something.

“Um, how long have you and Ui-chan been friends?” she finally asked.

I wasn’t exactly expecting that kind of a question, but I still answered: “About two years.”

She seemed a bit surprised. “Well… how old are you?”

Right at that moment, Hirasawa appeared from the kitchen with a tray full of goodies, and decided to answer Nakano’s question: “16, right?”

“Uh, actually… 17,” I muttered.

Setting the tray down on the table, she crouched down right next to me with a surprised expression, leaning towards me. “What? Since when?”

I backed up a bit. “Since last week. Look, it’s not that important, okay?”

She seemed a bit offended, and with a sigh, she finally backed down. “So, at the end of July. I have to remember that…” She then circled the table and sat down across from me, next to her sister.

Why the hell was she worrying about my birthday so much? Was she just looking for an excuse to make delicious food, and maybe a big cake? Wait… on the other hand, maybe I should let her host my birthday.

Without waiting any further, Tainaka grabbed a slice of watermelon from the platter. I followed her example, picking a slice and biting into it. We kept munching on the watermelons in complete silence for a while, until a question came to my mind.

“By the way, Yui-san? Your school is holding another festival in a couple of months, right?”

She swallowed her mouth empty. “Of course. Does your school hold festivals?”

“Actually, yes, at the end of February, but it’s a bit smaller than the one at your school. It’s more like a public party where seniors can relax after the final exams,” I explained.

Nakano, who was following our conversation, asked me: “By the way, what school do you go to?”

“Kasumimashita, why?” I asked back.

“Oh? It actually was my second option, since it was the second closest to my home, but I got accepted to Sakuragaoka.”

I pointed my finger at her. “Be thankful for that, it’s hundred times better, and better looking, too.”

“How do you know that?” she asked me.

“Ah, last year I visited the festival to watch the Light Music Club’s performance,” I explained, and she seemed to understand.

We kept on munching on the watermelons, until the platter was full of empty rinds.

“Oh boy, that was refreshing,” Tainaka stated, sighing out of satisfaction.

I glanced at her, thinking. Her tomboyish personality reminded me of Suzuki. Though, unlike Suzuki, she’s a lot more ongoing and, should I say, wild. But, there’s still something about her that is bugging me…

She noticed me looking at her, and after a while turned to the other girls. “Why is this guy staring at me…?”

There must be something. Something I’ve missed, something I’ve forgotten. Forgotten… What is something I’d forget? Or better yet, what is something that I’d _like_ to forget? Maybe, just maybe…

And then, I finally got it.

Out of surprise, I slammed my hand against the table, making the girls flinch a bit. I pointed at Tainaka with my finger.

“We went to the same junior high!”

Still a bit surprised by my slam, she glanced at the other girls, her expression changing to unamused one. “Only now you noticed it?”

“W-what? You mean… you recognized me before?” I asked, confused as hell.

“Yeah, all the way back at the Christmas party. Actually, it was Mio-chan who recognized you first.”

I didn’t know what to think. “…w-well, why didn’t you guys say something?”

She just shrugged. “Why? It’s not like we were in the same class or anything.”

Making slight, confused movement with my lips, I was about to ask something else, until my eyes met with her. She had unamused, almost annoyed expression. Almost as if she was quietly telling me ‘I don’t want to talk about it, so shut up’. I looked at her for a while, until I turned to look at the other girls, who were all confused about my sudden outburst. Shit, I’m just making a scene.

“A-ah, yeah, just wondering…” I muttered, backing down.

The following silence was painful, since I had caused it all by myself. It seemed to last an eternity, until Hirasawa saved my mental health by deciding to talk.

“Would anyone like some iced tea?”

After receiving a few approving nods, she got up and headed to the kitchen. Right after that, the girls began talking amongst themselves. Since they were talking about inside stuff, I decided to just lean back and stare out of the balcony door. I guess this is the disadvantage of being friends with people from another school. Well, whatever. I’ve gotten used to it.

After finishing my iced tea, I decided to make my leave, since I felt like an outsider among the girls. I quickly came up with some half-assed excuse, headed down to the foyer to get my shoes on, and left the house. I managed to walk a minute or so by myself, until I began hearing running steps behind me. I turned around, and to my complete surprise, it was Tainaka.

“Hey, wait up,” she said, a bit winded.

I glanced at her. “What’s up?”

“It’s just… I couldn’t help but notice how bothered you were about our earlier conversation,” she said.

I kept looking at her, and turned my gaze forwards, resuming walking. “Yeah, you’re right.”

She began walking alongside me. “Do you want to, uh, talk about it?”

Still keeping my eyes forward, I thought for a while. “…since you guys went to the same junior high as I, you must also know about my, well, reputation.”

She chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I guess we do.”

“Right…” I muttered. “So that’s why you didn’t want to talk about it back at the house?”

“Yup,” she nodded.

We walked in silence for a moment. Since she didn’t seem to have any objections about my route, I guess he also lives in the north-east part of the town.

Gathering up some courage, I glanced at Tainaka, and asked: “So, are you gonna tell Hirasawa? The younger one, I mean.”

“About what?” she asked back.

“About the fact that her friend is a violent delinquent.”

She seemed puzzled. “Why would we tell her something like that?”

Taken by surprise, I came to a halt. Tainaka also stopped and turned to look at me. My confused expression made her snicker.

“Listen, Sugimoto-san. I know what you did back then. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t anything admirable, but the thing is, it’s in the past. I mean, you’re not like that anymore, right?”

Still confused, I nodded slightly. She just smiled and continued on walking, as I hurried next to her.

She grinned out of amusement. “You can just imagine what Mio-chan and I thought when the delinquent of our junior high suddenly appeared to the Christmas party. The first minutes were very tense. But, to our complete surprise, you seemed like a whole different person. Sure, your easily annoyed personality was still there, but you didn’t outright snap, or blurt out F’s and S’s in every sentence. And most importantly, you didn’t have that annoyed frown on your face. You actually seemed happy.”

“Is that so…?” I muttered, a bit puzzled.

“After the party, Mio-chan and I still had this small doubt at the back of our minds, so… we decided to ask Yui-chan about you. But, according to her, you’re exactly the same as you were at the party. We didn’t hear a single thing that would point out to delinquency,” she told, and snickered. “Well, except for the time you skipped school to visit our school’s festival, but I guess that can be overlooked.”

Having listened to her story, I needed a clear answer. “So, uh, where are you getting at with this?”

“What I mean is, why would we tell Ui-chan about your past if you’re not that kind of a person anymore?”

I kept staring at her in awe, processing her words, until I slowly nodded. “That… actually makes sense.”

Of course. Why does my past matter so much? It has become apparent that Hirasawa is one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met. There’s no way she’d cut ties with me just because of what I did back in junior high. I mean, sure, I still don’t want her to know about it, but I guess I shouldn’t stress about it that much.

At an intersection, Tainaka suddenly took a turn. “I’ve got to drop by the grocery store, so I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Oh, alright. See ya,” I said, waving my hand for goodbye.

I didn’t even have time to take a step, until she blurted out: “Sorry for messing up your plans of a date with Ui-chan!”

“We’re not dating!” I yelled back to her, as she continued on walking, laughing all the way.

I kept glaring at her, murmuring something out of annoyance, and decided to just keep on walking back home. Well, she had clearly noticed how to get under my skin, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. To be honest, I felt relieved. I didn’t have to worry about my past anymore, so I should just concentrate on the present, and maybe a bit on the future.


	14. The Mid-Autumn

“This, gentlemen, is how you earn 500 yens,” I said to my friends, holding a coin between my fingers.

My, how easy it is to fool money out of overconfident punks. After all, strength only makes up half of winning an arm-wrestling match, and the rest comes down to technique, which I have come to master over the years. So, sometimes when I’m low on money, I scope the cafeteria out for arrogant-looking punks, and challenge them to an arm-wrestling match for money. Of course, betting is strictly prohibited in our school, but so far I haven’t gotten in trouble, so whatever, I guess. After buying myself a sandwich and a drink, we exited to the hallway.

“Want to head up to the walkway? The weather seems nice,” Tadaaki suggested as he glanced out of the hallway’s window.

Ichiro and I agreed. Despite it being the middle of autumn, the weather was still rather warm, so I guess it could be refreshing to enjoy our lunch outside. We climbed up to the third floor, and exited to the elevated walkway. The walkway doesn’t see much use outside of lunch breaks, since as I’ve earlier stated, the third floor of the west wing doesn’t hold any classes. Regardless, it’s still a good place to hang out when the weather’s nice. Enclosed with three meter tall chain-link fences, it’s like a miniature rooftop you see in high school anime and such. Taking a seat on the low ledge and leaning against the fence, we began eating our lunch, admiring the scenery from time to time.

After finishing out meals, I stood up and stretched a bit. “Let’s go to the club room, we still got half an hour to waste.”

_“Ah, Sugimoto-san.”_

“Good idea, I still have room for some coffee,” Tadaaki said, stuffing the trash into his coat’s pocket.

_“I’ve been looking for you.”_

“We could also check out that one indie rock album. You know, the one the club’s Founder praised a lot,” Ichiro suggested.

_“There’s something I need to talk about with you.”_

“It’s a plan, then. Let’s get moving,” I said, and we started walking towards the door.

“Are you ignoring me on purpose!?” Hironaka snapped as the grabbed me by the back of my uniform’s collar.

“What the hell do you want!?” I retorted, glancing at her over my shoulder.

She just angrily glared back at me. I looked at my friends, and beckoned them to go ahead without me. After glancing at each other with confused faces, they headed off and exited the walkway.

Finally letting go of me, Hironaka sighed and crossed her arms. “I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it, okay? Actually, you can tell those fatheads at the faculty office to stop blaming _me_ for everything,” I said, still annoyed.

My words caused Hironaka to get a bit muddled. “Huh? Oh, no, you’re not being accused of anything.”

“Is that so…? Well, never mind, then,” I muttered as I started walking towards the door.

However, I was grabbed by the collar once again. “Not so fast!”

“What now!?” I cried out.

“I’ve still got something to talk about with you!” Hironaka yelled as she yanked my collar.

I tried to struggle myself free. “But didn’t you just say that I’m not being accused of anything?”

This caused Hironaka to turn me around to face her, yanking me a bit closer. She furiously glared at me.

“So I’m only a student council member? That’s everything I am? My whole personality? My interests? My hobbies? Just running around after losers like you because teachers ask me to? Is that what you think?”

I could almost see the flames of anger in her eyes. Alright, I’ve got to admit, she had me pretty scared for a moment. That’s why I didn’t feel like coming up with some witty remark.

“…just get to the point,” I muttered, glancing elsewhere.

Releasing me from her grasp and taking a step back, she took a moment to calm down, and asked: “You play guitar, right?”

I was in the middle of fixing my collar, so the question caught me off guard. “Huh? Uh, sure, why?”

“Would you like to perform at the Winter Festival?” she presented me with a new question.

This was the festival I told Yui about. Winter Festival, as the name states, is held at the end of February, right between the finals and the graduation ceremony. Though, it wasn’t as much of a festival as just a big breather for students and a last change for seniors to have some fun. Regardless, it was a public event, and students maintained different kinds of stalls and activities, but due to winter, almost all of them were located inside. These activities included different kinds of performances held in the auditorium, including musical ones.

I raised an eyebrow. “Where’s this coming from?”

“There’s a group of miscellaneous students, none affiliated with any clubs, who would want to perform a song, but they’re missing a rhythm guitarist. None of the clubs have any to spare, and my searches for a guitarist amongst the students have been fruitless. So, that’s why I’m asking you,” she explained.

I crossed my arms, turning to face the fence, and scoped out the school’s front yard. “…shit, I don’t know. Why is this so important to you, anyway?”

“No reason,” she said swiftly, diverting her gaze elsewhere.

I turned to face her. “Gal, you’re lying between your teeth.”

Glimpsing at me, she hid her face behind her hair. “I… I might’ve, you know, composed the song, so…”

I was a bit surprised, but I soon smirked. “Ah, of course. You play piano, after all.”

With a faint blush, she soon pulled herself together. “A-anyway, how about it?”

Alright, this time I was seriously thinking about the offer. Sure, I like to play the guitar from time to time, but it’s not a constant hobby, so I’m not quite sure about my skills. Though, I’ve certainly improved over these years. Also, my role would be a rhythm guitarist, meaning I probably won’t have to do anything too complex. Still, I was a bit unsure about performing publicly to hundreds of people… Ugh, this is too much to think about in one sitting.

“How about this?” I snapped my fingers, getting Hironaka’s attention. “Let me think about it for the rest of the day. I’ll catch you after school and tell you my answer.”

Hironaka thought about my words for a while, until she nodded. “Just… don’t let it be another one of your lies, alright?”

“What do you take me for? Some kind of a delinquent?” I quipped as I walked to the door, and got back inside.

I was in the middle of doing the math problems when the bell rang, ending the school day. I glanced at my notebook, which had only few lines of writing. All the afternoon I’ve been thinking about Hironaka’s suggestion, so I couldn’t really concentrate on the exercises. Not that I usually do, but I still got to learn something if I want to graduate someday. I was about to head out to find Hironaka, but soon spotted my friends, who were heading to the club room. Oh well, Hironaka has some club activities herself, so I guess I could drink a cup of coffee before catching her.

After finishing my coffee, I threw the uniform’s coat back on my shoulders, and grabbed my schoolbag. “I’ve got something to take care of. See ya tomorrow.”

Tadaaki and Ichiro both waved me goodbye, lazing around on the couches. I walked the stairs up back to the ground floor, and headed off to the shoe lockers to change my shoes. I stepped outside, and circled the school to get to the sports ground. Different kinds of sports clubs were training around the field, including the Athletics club. Some of its female members were currently running the track. As I walked closer, I recognized Hironaka amongst the runners. Actually, she was leading the group. I knew she’s good at running, but damn, I was still a bit impressed. The girls waiting at the finish line cheered as Hironaka crossed it and slowly came to a stop. I walked towards her.

“Yo, Hironaka,” I greeted her, getting her (and all the onlookers’) attention.

She walked over to me, breathing heavily. The first thing I noticed was her t-shirt, which was soaked in sweat. It caused her bra to be a bit visible. However, I managed to keep my eyes off them. My teen hormones can’t best my self-discipline.

“Well, look at that. You actually came,” she quipped, a bit exhausted.

Unamused by her joke, I glanced around the sports ground. “Yeah, whatever. Anyway, my answer is yes.”

“R-really? That’s… that’s great,” Hironaka said, clearly relieved. “We’ll discuss it in better detail tomorrow at lunch break, okay?”

“Alright, see you then,” I said as I threw my hand for goodbye and turned around.

However, as I was walking away, I began hearing the girls talk behind my back.

“Why are you affiliated with _that_ guy?” some girl asked. “Don’t tell me you two are… you know…”

I heard Hironaka snickering. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’d never go out with someone like Sugimoto.”

Well, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting those words, so I just ignored it, and kept walking. Nothing new under the blue sky.

_“…besides, he’s already dating someone.”_

Wait, what? What the fuck was that just now, did I hear that right? I felt like turning around and confirming my suspicions, but I didn’t want to make a scene, so I just kept walking. Just my imagination, that’s all.

The next day, at noon, lunch break started. As my friends were heading towards the basement, I stayed in the hallway.

“You guys go ahead, I’ve got something to take care of.”

“Again?” Ichiro asked, confused.

Tadaaki had a smug grin on his face. “Some girl, maybe? Are you gonna introduce us to her?”

I almost choked on my spit, but somehow managed to keep my poker face. “Dude, if I had a girl, you clowns would be the last people I’d introduce to her.”

Tadaaki snickered, and began walking, confused Ichiro tailing after him. “Okay, whatever. Catch us later.”

I stood there to make sure they actually disappeared from the hallway, and began searching for Hironaka. She soon appeared from one of the classrooms.

“Ah, there you are. We’ll be going to the west wing. Follow me,” she instructed, and began walking along the hallway, me following right behind her.

Just as she said, we walked to the second floor of the west wing, to the end of the hallway.

“Others should be here already,” she said as she slid the door open.

The classroom was mostly empty, save for some chairs and desks here and there. On the said chairs sat four students, chatting with each other. One of them was a girl, and the rest were guys. From the color of their student ID cards, I noticed that three of them were second graders, and one was a senior. They all directed their gazes at us. Hironaka gave me a slight tap in the back, motioning me to step inside, which I did.

“Everyone, this is Sugimoto-san, he’ll be your rhythm guitarist,” Hironaka introduced me, and the students gave me small greetings.

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said before exiting the classroom and closing the door. I can’t believe I say this, but please, Hironaka, don’t leave me alone!

The students glanced at each other, until one of them (the senior) opened his mouth: “Aren’t you the…”

“The delinquent? Yes, I am,” I cut him off by finishing his sentence with unamused expression.

The guy was a bit taken aback, but he soon smiled and stood up. “Don’t worry about it, we’re not here to discuss that.”

He walked over to the wall, picking up an electric guitar leaning against it, and handed it over to me. “Show us what you got.”

“H-huh? Oh, sure, I guess,” I muttered as I took the guitar and began setting my fingers in different positions, trying to come up with something to play.

The girl snickered. “Are you gonna play dry? There’s an amplifier right next to you.”

I noticed the said thing right next to my feet, and got a bit embarrassed. “What? Y-yeah, of course, I’m just checking how it feels in my hand.” Now I wasn’t so sure about my skills anymore…

After plugging the guitar to the amplifier, I took a couple of deep breaths, and began playing a punk rock song. Holy shit, this actually sounds amazing! This must be that senior’s own guitar, there’s no way this piece-of-shit school could afford something like this. I played the song to the end of the first chorus, and as the sound died down, I slowly raised my head to see the other students. They seemed… indifferent. Oh fuck, I’m going home.

However, a slight smile appeared on the senior’s face. “Not bad. Actually, it was better that I anticipated. Sure, your chord switching could use a bit training, and you accidentally mute some strings. But, with some training, this’ll work.”

The other students gave him approving nods, and I couldn’t help but smile sheepishly.

“Do you have your own guitar?” he suddenly asked me.

“Uh, no. Is it a problem?”

He sighed, crossing his arms, and gazing at the ceiling. “No, not really. It’s just that we can’t really practice together that much, since I’m busy with the Baseball club, and these others have their own club activities. So, it would be better if you could practice on your free time.”

“But remember, the Winter Festival is many months away, so don’t sweat it,” one of the other guys noted.

My own guitar… Never before has that sentence tasted so good in my mouth. Ah, fuck it. I’ll buy one. I already have some money saved up for better computer components, but I guess that can wait for some other time.

The next Sunday I visited the Hirasawa residence. I was sitting at the coffee table, telling the girls about my recent purchase.

“What!? You have a guitar!?” Yui yelled out in surprise.

I nodded, sipping my tea.

“What’s its name?” she suddenly asked.

I almost choked on the tea due to the question. “Uh, it’s Yamaha Pacifica. I’m not sure about the exact model, I bought it second hand.”

Yui shook her head. “I’m not talking about models, I’m asking for its _name_.”

“Why in the world would I name my guitar?” I muttered with an unamused expression.

“Alright, it’s settled then. Your guitar’s name is Patricia!” she declared confidently, pointing her finger upwards.

I still wasn’t amused by her innovation. “Why a feminine name?”

“Because your guitar is like that special someone to you,” she explained. However, she blushed slightly, and muttered: “I mean, unless, you know, you’re g—”

“Anyway!” I swiftly said to cut her off. “Out of all names, why _Patricia_?”

Yui cocked her head confusedly. “You said it yourself.”

“I said Pacifica, it’s a guitar series!” I was getting a bit annoyed.

“Oh? Well, in any case, it’s now Patricia,” she said with a smile.

I felt like retorting with something, but soon gave up on the idea. Quarreling with Yui leads nowhere, I’ve come to learn that the hard way. Hirasawa, who was sitting next to her sister, giggled into her fist. Guess our arguing was as amusing as ever, huh…

“Oh, right. Our school’s festival is in just a few days. Are you going to visit it this time too?” Yui asked me.

I nodded. “It’s a great excuse to take some break from school.”

“Do they give you a permission just like that?” Hirasawa asked, cocking her head.

“Nah, I just skip school,” I said, almost bragging, and sipped my tea.

Hirasawa became worried. “What? Don’t you get in trouble?”

I shook my head. “In my school, they don’t really care if you skip school once in a month or so, as long as you get your work done.” I’m not sure if that assured her, since she still looked a bit worried.

As I sipped my tea, I realized something, and spoke to Hirasawa: “You know, last year I was there only to watch Yui’s club’s performance, so I didn’t have much time to explore the place any further.”

She understood what I had in mind and smiled. “So you’d like if someone showed you around? That’s fine by me. Let’s take Jun-chan and your sister with us.”

“Still can’t believe you’re somehow friends with my sister…” I muttered under my breath with unintentional snicker.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Yui sniffling. “By the way, what made you buy your guita... a… a-a-a—”

“ _Achoo!_ ”

“S-sis!” Hirasawa yelled worriedly.

“That didn’t sound like a casual sneeze,” I stated and gulped the rest of my tea down, since I felt like I’d need to make my leave soon.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Rea… a-a-Achoo!” Yui sneezed again, not even being able to finish her sentence.

Hirasawa placed her hand on Yui’s forehead, and flinched. “Sis, you’ve got a fever!”

“Well, that does it. I’m getting out of here,” I muttered as I stood up.

As I was heading to the stairs, I quickly realized how asshole-ish my exit would be, so I turned to face the girls. “Yo, Yui-san, try to get better soon. I’m not planning on missing your performance.”

“Y-you can count on me,” Yui sniffled with a goofy smile, holding a peace sign.

“And Hirasawa,” I said as I turned my attention to the other girl. “Take care of her, alright?”

She seemed a bit surprised by my sudden interest in her sister’s wellbeing, but soon smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

Alright, now I’m not such a big asshole anymore, and it actually felt nice to say those things. I could finally head down to the foyer to get my shoes on, and leave the house.

Couple of days later I messaged with Hirasawa. She told me she went to Yui’s club disguised as her sister, but was caught. Man, that girl really cares about her sister.

The next day was the day of the festival. Like before, I woke up before six o’clock, getting dressed as quietly as I could, and hiding my school stuff into my closet. Grabbing my phone and my wallet, I sneaked downstairs to get my shoes on, and quietly stepped outside. Closing my hoodie’s zipper and slipping my hands into its pockets, I began heading towards Hirasawa residence, as we had planned beforehand.

Half an hour later I arrived at the house. I was thinking about messaging Hirasawa, since I didn’t want to ring the doorbell, but she managed to spot me from the kitchen window. She waved at me, and I answered the gesture. It took only a few seconds until she came down to open the door. She was already wearing her school uniform.

“Good morning, Sugimoto-kun,” she greeted me quietly.

As we headed upstairs, I noticed a serving of breakfast on the dining table.

To my surprise, Hirasawa said: “That’s for you. I’ll join you as soon as I get my own breakfast ready.” She then headed to the kitchen.

Man, that’s for me? Even though I’ve been receiving her hospitality for almost two years now, it still manages to surprise me. The meal consisted of just a piece of toast and a glass of orange juice. Normally it wouldn’t be anything special, but since it was made for me, it’s god damn special, alright. I took a seat at the dining table, but didn’t touch the food until Hirasawa had her own meal ready.

As I swallowed the first bite, I glanced towards the ceiling. “How’s your sister?”

“A lot better. Though, she’s going to rest until the last minute just to make sure,” she said.

I nodded, resuming eating the breakfast. After finishing our meals, Hirasawa gathered the dishes, carried them over to the kitchen and began washing them. I checked my watch, which told me we still had an hour to waste before heading off. Without further ado, I moved myself from the dining table to the couch, where I laid down. I might’ve relaxed a bit too much, since I fell asleep.

“—ke up. Sugimoto-kun, wake up,” I heard a whisper.

Slowly opening my eyes, I saw Hirasawa, who was gently shaking me by the shoulder.

“…ah, I guess I dozed off…” I muttered as I sat up, quickly noticing that Hirasawa had covered my body with a warm blanket.

Hirasawa took a step back, and smiled. “It’s fine, glad you could get more sleep.”

After standing up and stretching for a bit, I asked: “So, uh, guess we’re leaving now?”

She answered with a nod. We got downstairs, and headed out. Even though the sun was higher than when I arrived here, it still was a bit chilly, and I had to keep my hoodie’s zipper closed. After some minutes of walking, we arrived at the train station. There, to my surprise, we met Suzuki. And she seemed to be as surprised to see _me_.

“Sugimoto-kun? What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Taking a break from school,” I quipped. “I actually could ask the same from you. Why are you standing here at the train station?”

“I’m waiting for your sister. We planned on going together to school,” she explained.

Hirasawa seemed to remember something. “Oh, we did, didn’t we?”

“Now just hold on a minute. You didn’t tell them about me coming along?” I muttered, glancing at Hirasawa.

“Oh, uh, I was so worried about my sister’s fewer that I completely forgot, eheh,” she said, laughing embarrassedly.

I glanced at her, about to say something, but… God damn it, there’s something in that smile that makes me forgive her. Right at that moment, the train arrived at the station, pushing out dozens of people, most to which were wearing Sakuragaoka’s uniform. One of them was my sister, Tamiko, who walked over to us.

With that usual smile on her face, she began greeting us: “Good morning, Ui-chan, Jun-chan, Eiji-cha—”

As she got to me, she fell quiet. Out of nowhere, she hit me on the forehead with the edge of her palm.

“Ow, what’s that for?” I cried out, taking a step backwards.

She clenched her fists out of anger. “Why are you skipping school, you idiot? You’ll get in trouble!”

“For fu— …god’s sake, stop worrying about me so much,” I muttered.

I wasn’t sure if she was planning on yelling at me again, since Hirasawa stepped between us to defuse the situation.

“Tamiko-chan, it’s my fault. I invited him, but I forgot to mention about it to you,” she explained with a nervous smile.

Suzuki nodded, placing her hand on Tamiko’s shoulder. “Besides, it’s not like one day of skipping school will get him into any trouble, right?”

Tamiko glanced at the girls, until the directed her annoyed gaze towards me. “Yes, it wouldn’t be a problem if it was only _one_ day.”

“Eh?” Hirasawa turned around to look at me. “Has… Sugimoto-kun been skipping school often?”

Slipping my hands into my pockets, I turned around, and began walking. “Alright, I get it. I’m going to school.”

“Ah, S-Sugimoto-kun!” Hirasawa yelled after me.

It took some time to finally convince my sister to cut me some slack. However, she said that I was treading on some mighty thin ice. After assuring that I’d take school more seriously from now on, we began heading towards Sakuragaoka. After a bit of walking, we finally arrived. Even though it was only a bit before 9 in the morning, the festival was already going at full speed. The stalls were opened, at least hundred people roamed around the yard, and whoever was in charge of decorating the place should get a raise.

As we walked through the yard, Hirasawa turned to face me. “We’ll be stopping by our class to get attendance markings, then we have some fun.”

I nodded. “Alright, fine by m—”

My sentence was cut short as someone grabbed me from behind, covering my eyes. I could also feel two soft ‘balls’ pressing against my back.

“Guess who!”

I struggled to get myself free. “Get off of me, Yoshiko-san!”

The girl behind me finally let me go, and I turned around. As I had guessed, it was Nakamura Yoshiko.

Putting her hands on her hips, she leaned towards me. “Is that how you answer to a greeting?”

“You call that stranglehold a greeting?” I asked, unamused.

She just smirked for an answer. After that, she noticed the ladies accompanying me, who in turn were staring at us, everyone equally confused.

“Oh, are these the friends you’ve been talking about?” she asked.

“Yeah. Actually, that one’s my sister,” I said, nodding towards the light haired lady.

Yoshiko walked to her, leaning for a closer look. “ _She’s_ your sister!?” Tamiko was too nervous to say a word, as the other girls were still just staring in pure confusion.

Grabbing her by the shoulders and a flash of joy in her eyes, she asked: “Mind if I take her for myself?”

“Be my guest,” I said indifferently, glancing elsewhere.

“What a horrible brother you have…” she muttered to my sister.

“I know, right?” my sister muttered back. Great, now there were two against me…

Looking at my other friends, Yoshiko became puzzled. “Since when have you been _this_ good with the ladies?”

This caused Suzuki to recover from her shock, and become interested. “You mean, he’s shy around girls?”

Yoshiko nodded with a grin. “Oh, yes, though ‘shy’ might be an understatement. Or, at least it used to be that way. It seems that Eiji-kun has struck his head or something. I can’t find any other explanation for that sudden change of personality.” Oh for crying out loud, please shut your mouth, gal!

“Sugimoto-kun, is that true?” Hirasawa asked me. Which damn part does she mean; about me being shy, or about me striking my head!?

“Enough of this shit already!” I retaliated, pulling a hood over my head to hide my blushing face.

“See? I told you he’s shy,” I heard Yoshiko quipping, and the girls giggled.

Well, after some very embarrassing first encounters, I finally managed to calm myself down and introduced Yoshiko to the girls. She joined us as we spent the next hours exploring around the school, checking out different stalls and activities, and eating delicious snacks. Now that I had more time to get a look around me, I noticed few other teenage boys here and there. Phew, I guess I’m not such an individual after all. Despite that, I still noticed some students glancing at me every now and then, but I tried my best to ignore it, and just concentrate on having fun.

As the morning was turning into a noon, the girls and I decided to take a breather on some benches located a bit further away from the stalls. Everyone was drinking their own refreshments, my choice being a multi-colored slushie. I was having a conversation with Hirasawa, until I noticed Yoshiko glancing at us from the corner of my eye.

“You know, I’ve been wondering…” she started, getting our attention. “You’ve been friends for some years, right?”

Hirasawa and I glanced at each other, and we both nodded to Yoshiko, not having any idea about what she meant.

“So, isn’t it weird that you still keep calling each other by last names?” she asked.

Suzuki raised her eyebrow. “Now that I think about it, it is a bit weird. I mean, you call Yui-san by her first name, but not Ui-chan.”

“That’s because they’re both Hirasawa, it’d be too confusing,” I noted, sipping my drink.

“Well how about this,” Yoshiko said, leaning closer to us. “Try calling each other by your first names.”

I clicked my tongue, turning my gaze away. “No deal, it’d be too embarrassing, even for Hirasaw—”

“Eiji-kun,” Hirasawa said like it was nothing, cutting me off and making me flinch a bit.

As I was busy being speechless, Hirasawa smiled to herself. “Oh, you’re right. It feels more natural.”

Yoshiko nodded, and turned to me. “Now you, Eiji-kun.”

“I’ll say it if I feel like it,” I murmured, sipping my drink, and glancing elsewhere.

Suzuki puffed her cheeks, unamused. “You’re no fun, Eiji-kun.” Now she’s doing it, too!?

Another hour passed as we roamed around the school. It wasn’t long until it’d be time for Yui’s club’s performance. As we were about to head to the auditorium, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Yoshiko.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?” she asked.

I was a bit puzzled, but nodded for an answer. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch you,” I said to the other girls.

They gave me affirmative answers, and began heading towards the auditorium, disappearing into the crowd of festival visitors. I turned to Yoshiko.

“So, uh, what’s up?” I asked her.

She glanced at the school building, her face half-covered by the shadow of a cherry blossom tree. “This is my last festival in this school.”

“Yeah, you’re a senior, after all,” I said, as I, too, raised my gaze towards the school.

“I want to go to college after this. If I’m accepted, it means I’ll have to move away,” she stated.

“Oh…” I managed to say, as I finally understood what was bothering her.

She turned her gaze from the school to the cherry blossom three, under which we were currently standing, and placed her hand on its trunk. “I’ll sure miss this place…”

She turned her mournful eyes towards me, and smiled. “And I’ll miss Tadaaki-kun, Ichiro-kun and you keeping me company at the café.”

The way she talked… I felt bad for her. However, I didn’t let the feelings faze my sense of reason.

“Come on, now. You’re talking like you’d be leaving tomorrow. You still have half a year left in this town. You know, if it makes you feel better, me and the guys could come visit the café more often.”

“Thank you,” she said as she answered my smile. “Now hurry along, you’ll miss the performance at this rate.”

“Huh, aren’t you coming?”

She shook her head. “I’m going to meet up with some of my classmates and have fun with them. Besides, I feel myself old with those three young ladies.”

The latter part made me chuckle, which was probably her intention. I glanced at my watch, and flinched. Shit, I’m gonna be late! Quickly waving my hand for goodbye, I began running towards the auditorium, dodging people like obstacles.

_“Take care of Ui-chan!”_ I could hear a faint yell right behind me.

Huh, what did she mean by that? Bah, whatever, I didn’t have time to think about it, since I needed to concentrate on my running. Some dodging later I finally got to the auditorium. Taking a few seconds to calm my breath, I stepped inside.

**“—by After School Tea Time of the Light Music Club.”**

The lights were out. I got here just in time to see the red curtain raise, and the crowd started cheering. I scoped my surroundings, and found the girls right next to me, standing next to a wall. I joined them, and noticed that I was approximately at the same spot as last year. I turned my gaze towards the stage. The club members’ attires were as weird as before; this time they were wearing colorful yukatas. It still looked nice on them. However, I quickly noticed something.

“…what the hell…?” I muttered to myself.

My thought process was interrupted by Tainaka, who set the beat, and the song began right after. The beginning gave me goosebumps, it sounded so damn good. And as Akiyama began singing… God fucking damn it, this is the best! But, I still couldn’t help but keep glancing at the guitarist in the front. It was Sawako, the club’s advisor. Where the hell’s Yui?

**_♫ I’m going to write you with all my love, so that my love reaches you when you receive this letter…! ♫_ **

It was simply amazing, I can’t even find words for it. Though, I was still wondering about Yui. Why isn’t she here? As the song was coming to an end, the door next to me suddenly opened. Yui stepped inside, carrying a guitar bag on her back, breathing heavily and seemingly exhausted, almost as if she’s been running.

“Y-Yui-san!?” I yelled out in surprise.

“Sis!” Hirasawa yelled right after.

Yui turned around to face us. “Eh? Oh, Ui, Sugimoto-kun! Peace!” She threw us a peace sign, and continued on towards the stage.

“Sis, do your best!” Hirasawa cheered after her.

I decided to do my part, too. “Go, Yui-san!”

The song ended just as Yui got to front of the stage. She climbed to the stage, almost tripping in the process, and thanked Sawako, who stepped aside, accompanied by crowd’s cheering. Yui began sobbingly apologizing to the other club members. However, the club members gave her some comforting words, and the crowd began cheering once again, yelling encouraging things. The girls and I did the same. After things calmed down a bit, she plugged her guitar in and stood in front of the microphone, facing the audience. She explained she was late because she forgot her guitar at home, which I’d already figured out. She held a small speech, condensing the events of the past two years into few sentences. After letting the crowd cheer for a while, Tainaka set the beat, and they started playing.

**_♫ Oh, I pray to God, please, give some Dream Time for just the two of us! ♫_ **

It was that song I fell in love with a year ago. Just like pretty much everyone else, I clapped along the rhythm and lip-synched the lyrics. As the song came to an end, it was quiet. Actually, the silence felt rather empty. However, out of nowhere, Kotobuki began playing the song’s chorus on her keyboard. Tainaka joined her soon after.

“Oh hell yeah!” I shouted as I realized what they had in mind.

Akiyama and Nakano joined the playing, and soon did Yui, too.

“Once again!” she shouted.

**_♫ Oh, I pray to God, please, give some Dream Time for just the two of us! ♫_ **

The audience stood up, everyone clapping along the beat. I did so too, until I noticed Hirasawa next to me, who was trying her best to see over the crowd, but to no affair. ‘Take care of Ui-chan’, huh…? This might be the stupidest idea I’ve ever had, but I want to help her somehow. After couple of deep breaths, I tapped her on the shoulder.

“Yo, Hirasa— I mean, Ui-san,” I called out to her.

As she turned to look at me, I crouched down. “You can sit on my shoulders, if you’d want a better view.”

Taken aback a bit by my sudden offer, she, however, took my offer, and sat down on my shoulders. She’s a bit lighter than I expected, but I still had a feeling my muscles would be sore tomorrow.

“Up we go,” I muttered as I slowly but surely stood up, leaning against the wall, and holding Hira… Ui by her ankles.

I noticed Suzuki and Tamiko looking at us, first confused, but soon smiling. After balancing herself for a while, Ui directed her gaze towards the stage, and began clapping just as the song ended, and the audience began cheering.

“I love light music!” Yui shouted, and the cheering went on.

I balanced myself along Ui’s movements as she cheered her sister. Not wanting to attract too much unwanted attention, I was about to let her back down. However, as I glanced upwards and saw her smiling face, I decided to let her stay up there for a bit longer.


	15. New Year's Concert

December rolled in, the temperature being around zero degrees Celsius. Despite that, there still wasn’t any snow. It was a bright but cold Sunday afternoon. I was sitting at the living room’s kotatsu with my sister, sipping my coffee and watching TV. I glanced to my side, where my big brother, Daichi, would usually be sitting, but not this time. Our uncle, who owns a construction company in a town tens of kilometers away from here, offered him a job. Daichi, who has so far been doing only dead-end part-time jobs, accepted the offer, and moved away last month. I’ll surely miss him, but everyone has to move away at some point. Only a couple of years, and I’d have to do the same.

As I finished my coffee, I got up, stopped by the kitchen to throw the mug into the sink, and walked to the foyer to get my boots and coat on. I noticed Dash getting up from her bed.

“No, we’re not going for a walk. You can laze around for a bit longer.”

Dash seemed to understand me, but instead of laying back down, it walked to the living room, probably to get scratches from Tamiko.

“Are you going somewhere?” I could hear my sister asking.

“Yeah, I’ll be gone for maybe an hour or two,” I answered.

“Alright, but be sure to come back before dinner.”

I stepped outside, and almost slipped. Damn cold has made the wooden porch’s surface slippery. With careful steps, I finally got down from the porch to more secure asphalt, and began walking.

An hour later I stepped out of a bookstore, holding my newest purchase; the fourth volume of _Warriors of Lotus_. Sweet, I’ll spend the whole winter reading this. My coat’s inside pocket is ridiculously big, so I could easily slip the book in there. Now then, back to home.

Half an hour later I started recognizing some houses. I was in a very familiar neighborhood. It gave me an idea. I dug out my phone and sent Ui a text message. She responded quickly, telling me that she’s currently at a grocery store with her sister. I scoped my surroundings. If I remember correctly, the store should be nearby. I wonder if I can find it. Besides, I felt like buying a soda.

After roaming around for some minutes, I finally found the store and stepped inside. I began walking around the store, looking for the Hirasawa sister. Did I come too late…? No, wait, there they are, right next to the milk shelves.

“Yo,” I greeted them, getting their attention.

“Eiji-kun? You could have waited for us at the house,” Ui said, surprised about my presence.

I shrugged. “Eh, I just happened to be nearby.”

“Eiji-kun, Eiji-kun!” Yui called out for me enthusiastically. “Which sounds better: marshmallow-soy-milk hotpot or chocolate-curry hotpot?”

“A what now?” I muttered, very confused. Yui, however, was still waiting for my answer. “…if I was threatened with a gun, I’d eat the latter.”

My answer fell on deaf ears, since Yui was busy texting on her phone. “I’ll ask the others.”

I wanted to say something, but just sighed out of frustration, and turned to Ui.

“Is there something I can help with?”

She seemed to think about my offer. “Well, not right now, but you could later help with the grocery bags.”

“Roger that,” I said with a nod.

Since I had nothing better to do, I just followed the girls as they did their shopping, making a small chitchat.

After a while, Yui checked her phone and frowned. “No one’s replying.”

“I wouldn’t either if I got a question like that,” I quipped.

“But you already gave me your answer,” she noted.

“Huh? I thought you didn’t care about it.”

Yui shook her head. “Of course I cared, I just need more answers from other people.”

“What, is this some kind of a vote or something…?” I muttered with a sigh.

Suddenly, Yui’s phone started ringing.

“Ah, it’s Azunyan,” she said, before answering the call with a smile on her face.

However, as the phone call went on, Yui’s expression turned serious. Is something bad going on?

“Got it. Stay calm, Azunyan. We’ll be there soon,” she said before ending the call.

“W-what’s wrong?” Ui asked worriedly.

“There’s something wrong with a cat that Azunyan is taking care of, and she’s all alone,” Yui explained, slightly panicked.

A cat, huh? Even though Nakano and I are not on the best terms, I still couldn’t ignore a cat.

I think Yui’s panicking got the best of me, too. “Come on, let’s pay for this stuff and go!”

From words to deeds, I soon found myself running along the street, following the Hirasawa sisters. Midway through I realized I forgot to buy that soda. Bah, whatever, right now there’s something more important. After some minutes of running, we finally arrived at Nakano’s house. It was a basic-looking detached house, nothing fancy. We got to the front door, and Yui rang the doorbell. After a few painfully long seconds, Nakano finally answered the door.

“Yui-senpai! Glad you’re here!” she said in a panic.

However, her gaze soon reached me. “Wait, what are _you_ doing here?”

Ignoring her words, I stepped closer. “Where’s the cat?”

“Uh, in the living room,” she muttered, a bit taken aback by my attitude.

I moved in the foyer, kicking off my boots and shaking the coat off my shoulders, and walked deeper into the house. I guess this could be seen as rude, but right now I didn’t care about something so trivial.

“The living room’s on the right!” Nakano instructed me, and I turned to the right.

I found the black-and-white kitten right away. It was laying on top of a couch, coughing and hacking, spitting some yellowish liquid in the process. Ah, now I understand. Some seconds passed, and Nakano and the Hirasawa sisters arrived running to the living room.

As Nakano saw me just staring at the kitten, some confusion mixed in with her panic. “Why are you just standing there!?”

I slowly turned to face her. “Um… You know cats operate, right?”

Now she was even more confused.

“It’s just coughing up a hairball, nothing serious,” I said as I turned my gaze back to the kitten. “Cats tend to do that.”

“Is that right?” she asked the Hirasawa sisters, and they both nodded. Gal, why can’t you trust me just this once?

Right at that moment, the kitten finally managed to get the hairball out of its system.

“There you have it, just a hairball,” I said, pointing at the slimy hairball on the couch.

Nakano quietly glanced at the hairball, and then at the kitten, which was as if nothing had happened. What an awkward silence, maybe I should try to break it.

“Better clean that up, it’s pretty disgusting,” I said, glancing at the hairball.

I don’t know if it was something I said, or the fact that it was _me_ who said it, but it was enough to make Nakano lose it. “You can clean it for all I care!” she snapped.

Well, I guess it’s the least I can do to make up for all the teasing and witty remarks I’ve tormented her with ever since we met for the first time…

After getting the couch clean and washing my hands, I returned back to the living room, joining the girls around the coffee table. They were eating marshmallows that the Hirasawa sisters had bought. Wait, don’t tell me they’re actually going to make that disgusting sounding hotpot… Now that I had more time to take a closer look around, I noticed something about Nakano’s living room: most of the shelves were filled with vinyl records, CD cases, and everything else related to music. I think she once mentioned that her parents are musicians, but I didn’t expect _this_ kind of fanaticism and dedication… Not that it’s weird or anything, it’s actually pretty cool.

“Uh, Sugimoto-san? Do you have a cat, since you know about them?” Nakano asked me.

“Nah, I’ve only got a dog, but my cousins have a cat. I’ve visited them once in a while, and have come to know a handful of things about owning a cat,” I answered, glancing at the kitten, which was napping on the couch. “Besides, it’s common knowledge that cats cough up hairballs.”

She frowned a bit and turned her head away, muttering: “Well I just didn’t happen to know…”

I smiled at her, as she annoyedly glared back at me from the corner of her eye. I don’t know what it is about this gal, but it’s fun to mess with her. I guess it’s because she’s kinda cute when she gets angry and tries to look fearsome, just like a kitten.

“Eiji-kun, you take one, too,” Yui said, holding a marshmallow in her hand.

“Huh? Oh, uh, sure,” I muttered, reaching my hand towards the marshmallow bag.

However, Yui handed the marshmallow over to me. Or at least I thought so at first. When she just held it in front of my face, it soon became apparent what she had in her mind.

“Say ‘ah’,” she instructed me.

I glanced at the marshmallow and then at Yui. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Aw, come on,” she whined impatiently.

Oh, for fuck’s sake… Rolling my eyes, I opened my mouth. I’d rather go through this than listen to Yui’s childish whining. Yui pushed the marshmallow into my mouth, her finger sliding on my lower lip as she was retracting her hand. As I chewed the marshmallow a bit embarrassed, I glanced at the girls. The Hirasawa sisters were both smiling, while Nakano tried her best to hide her shock. I’m not sure if these humiliating moments will ever be worth the fun ones.

Someone’s message tone sounded, and Yui dug out her phone. “Ah, everyone else replied,” she said as she began checking the messages.

“Huh? Mugi-chan is working?” she yelled out in surprise, and the girls leaned closer.

Click. “Mio-chan is at the beach!”

Click. “Ricchan asks where we are.”

“We’re at Azunyan’s,” she muttered out loud as she wrote an answer, and soon received another message. “Ricchan says that she’s coming over.”

Azunya— I mean, Nakano dug out her own phone. “I’ve got to ask Jun-chan to come and get her cat.”

“Wait, so it’s Jun-san’s cat?” I asked.

She flinched in surprise. “Huh, you know Jun-chan?”

I scratched the back of my head, glancing elsewhere. “Yeah, well, we’ve been friends for some years now.”

Clearly having hard time believing my words, Nakano slowly turned to look at Ui, who just nodded for an answer.

Having processed the information, she turned back to me. “…you’re just full of surprises, you know that? Next you’re probably going to tell me one of my friends is actually your sister or something.” She chuckled a bit at the end of her joke.

It was quiet for a bit. After she noticed my awkward appearance, she began connecting the pieces. As she reached the conclusion, she flinched.

“D-don’t tell me you have a sister named Tamiko.”

After hesitating for a bit, I gave a slight nod.

It took her some time to recover from her shock. “…I just thought the same last name was a coincidence…” she muttered. She’s gonna completely lose it at this rate, so I better keep my mouth shut.

I felt something pushing against my leg under the table. I was about to tell Yui to cut it out, until it suddenly jumped on my lap. It was that kitten.

“W-woah there…” I said in surprise.

The kitten circled my lap couple of times, and laid down. Must be a damn warm lap, huh?

“Looks like Azunyan 2 likes you,” Nakano noted as she leaned a bit closer to see the kitten.

“ _Azunyan 2_? So this is actually your sister?” I quipped, scratching the kitten’s head.

Nakano glared at me with an annoyed expression. However, the Hirasawa sisters laughed at my shitty joke. After some seconds, Nakano finally gave up and giggled, too.

As we waited for Tainaka, I just spent my time scratching the kitten on my lap and scoping out the living room. However, I slowly thought of something.

“By the way, why didn’t Jun-san ask me to take care of the cat?” I asked.

Nakano shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because you have a dog?”

“That lazy piece of a dog is really gentle, even towards cats,” I said, and carefully laid down on the floor. “Though, maybe she just didn’t know that.”

The conversation was cut short when the doorbell rang.

“Ah, it’s probably Ricchan,” Yui said as she stood up and headed to answer the door.

I heard the door opening, and a Tainaka-like greeting. A bit later Yui returned to the living room, Tainaka following her.

She flinched as her eyes reached me. “Don’t you have any friends of your own!?”

“Would you please greet me normally even once!?” I retaliated, unintentionally making the girls laugh.

After chatting for a bit, we decided to head to the burger place where Kotobuki is working part-time. Nakano stayed home to wait for Jun to pick up the kitten. As we got to the burger place, we immediately recognized Kotobuki behind the cash register. I don’t know about others, but she seemed out of place to me. Well, I guess she might be tight on money, so I won’t criticize her choices. I’ve actually been thinking about getting a part-time job next summer since I blew all my savings away on that guitar. After ordering our meals, we headed to the table, and couldn’t help but stare at Kotobuki.

“It’s weird seeing Mugi-chan at work,” Yui said. Ah, so I wasn’t alone with my opinion.

Tainaka smiled. “She sure has matured.”

I heard approaching steps, and saw Nakano from the corner of my eye.

“Ah, Azusa!” Tainaka greeted her.

“Did Jun-chan pick up the kitten?” Ui asked her.

Nakano answered with a nod, and took a seat between Ui and me.

Once again I heard approaching footsteps, this time from another direction. It was Akiyama. Guess the whole gang is here, huh. I felt like an odd one out.

“Welcome back, Mio-chan,” Yui greeted her.

Akiyama took a seat next to Tainaka. It took her couple of seconds to notice my presence.

“Oh, Sugimoto-san. Hello,” she greeted me, a bit surprised, but still politely.

“Yo,” I greeted back, and turned to face Tainaka. “See? That’s how you greet properly.”

“I’m going to start greeting you properly after you stop appearing out of nowhere,” she stated, glaring at me.

I sipped my drink, and turned to face Ui. “From now on, every time I come to visit, you’ll warn Tainaka-san about it via a text message. That way she can stop being so surprised about my existence.” My shitty joke caused a few chuckles.

As the girls began talking about their own things, I decided to just keep quiet and eat my food, glancing out the window once in a while. Huh, so Jun got a cat? I remember her mentioning about being a cat person. But seriously, my sister and I could’ve taken care of the cat. I still remember the time my cousins brought their cat over to us. It was Dash’s closest encounter with a feline. At the end of the day, Dash was just sleeping in her bed, while the cat was sleeping on top of Dash.

My thinking was cut short by Tainaka, who grabbed Akiyama by her collar and started trashing her around, clearly mad about something. Whatever it was, I didn’t care about making a scene in the middle of a restaurant.

I snapped my fingers. “Yo, you two. If you’re gonna fight, do it outside,” I said to them with an unamused expression.

It seemed to do the trick, since Tainaka let go of Akiyama, and now they both were like nothing had happened. Seriously, I really feel like an odd one out with these hyperactive ladies. But, to be honest, there’s something in their childish behavior that brings a smile to my face.

They planned on waiting until Kotobuki’s shift would end. I didn’t have anything better to do, so after finishing my meal, I decided to wait, too. I spent the time looking out of the window and listening to the girls’ conversation, throwing a comment or two once in a while. It took about an hour until Kotobuki was released, and we made our leave.

As we got outside, Ui noticed something, and faced me. “Eiji-kun, is that vibrating sound coming from your pocket?”

“Huh?” I muttered in confusion, and began to dig my coat’s pockets.

Yup, it was my phone, alright. It was comfortably tucked between my gloves, which is why I didn’t feel the vibration. The caller was… my sister. Fuck. Looks like she has tried to call me several times, but I hadn’t noticed it.

I looked at Ui with a worried expression, and hesitatingly answered the phone. “H-he-hello—?”

“Where have you been!? Why haven’t you answered your phone!?”

I quickly pulled the phone away from my ear to protect my eardrums. The girls turned to look at my terrified expression and my screaming phone.

As the yelling quieted down, I moved it back to my face. “I-I just bumped into a few friends, and I—”

“I thought you were in trouble! You said you’d be gone for only an hour or two, but it’s been almost five hours!”

“A-a-alright, calm down. I’m coming right over. Just please, for the love of god, calm down,” I said to her with a shaky voice, and ended the call. Tamiko’s usually very sweet and kind, but when she gets angry… god damn.

The girls stared at me in complete surprise, and Ui smiled nervously. “I… I guess you need to head back home.”

“Damn right I do…” I muttered, throwing my hand for goodbye. “See ya, gals. If my sister doesn’t kill me, that is.”

I began running back home. Would she calm down quicker if I buy her some chocolate…?

Few days went by. Right after the classes and a cup of coffee at the club room, I went straight home to change into casual clothes, and headed to Hirasawa residence. Tadaaki had stuff to do back home, and Ichiro was busy being interrogated by teachers after getting into a fight, so I decided to go bother Ui for a change. Midway through I remembered to message her about my plans to visit. I sent her a small message, and got a small, approving answer. I continued on walking along the familiar route, as the approaching winter made me shiver a bit.

As usual, I got to the house, rang the doorbell, and was warmly welcomed by Ui. However, as I got upstairs, I noticed something.

“Where’s Yui?” I asked, not spotting the girl lazing around under the kotatsu as usual.

“She said she had something to do with her friends after school,” Ui answered, walking to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

“Is that so…?” I muttered, taking a seat at my usual spot, and sliding my feet under the kotatsu.

Now that I think about it, it’s been almost two years since I visited this house the first time. Back then, I tried my best to keep my posture straight and was overall a bit nervous. But now this is like a second home to me. I could relax without a worry in the world. Ui got the tea done, and carried the tray over to the kotatsu, taking a seat across from me.

As I grabbed my teacup, something came to my mind. “By the way, how’s my sister doing at school?”

“Uh, good, I guess. However, last Monday she complained a lot about you and your carelessness.”

I chuckled. “I see.”

We both sipper our teas, and Ui asked: “Oh, by the way, isn’t your school’s festival in just a couple of months?”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “That’s why I bought my guitar in the first place.”

Ui cocked her head. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” I sipped my tea. “I’m going to perform a song there.”

I was about to take another sip, until Ui made the kotatsu shake by slamming her hands on it. She leaned towards me, almost being all fours on top of the kotatsu. Taken by surprise, I quickly backed against the sofa, almost spilling my tea.

“W-why didn’t you tell me something so important!?” she yelled out.

It took me a few seconds to gather my thoughts. “I… I just forgot, okay? Why is it so important to you, anyway?”

Ui finally backed down with a sigh. “I was actually thinking if I should visit your school’s festival…”

She raised her gaze towards me, a flash of determination in her eyes. “…but now, I absolutely must visit it!”

I wasn’t exactly sure what to think, this side of Ui was completely new to me. “…well, uh, what about school? Are you gonna ditch classes just for that?”

“It’s at the end of February, right? I’m sure I can take one day off without any worries,” she said with a smile.

I… uh… Did I just turn her into a delinquent?

After thinking about it for a while, I shrugged. “Well, whatever, do as you want. But just this once.”

“Great!” she rejoiced.

The silence returned, but only for a slight moment. After finishing her tea, Ui crawled towards the TV, raising a pink PlayStation controller.

“Um, would you like to play something?”

Gulping down the rest of my tea in one go, I set the cup down, and grinned. “I haven’t done anything else for the past ten years.”

“…how in the world are you so good at this?” I muttered as the round ended.

I managed to beat Ui, but only barely. We were playing some casual fighting game, and I was actually sweating as I fought against Ui. I was leading her on the score list, but only by few points. Ui just shrugged with a smile, when a sound of the front door took us by surprise.

“I’m home! I brought everyone with me!” a familiar voice greeted from downstairs.

“Ah, it’s sis,” Ui stated as she stood up and headed to the kitchen.

I leaned over to get a glimpse, and noticed her preparing tea for the new guests. With an amused snicker, I began clearing the game console away. I got the job done just as Yui walked upstairs, followed by her friends.

Tainaka flinched and pointed her finger at me. “ _You_ aga—”

“Hello, Tainaka-san!” I yelled to cut her off, glaring at her with unamused expression.

Being a bit surprised by my outburst, she smiled nervously. “…I… I mean, what a surprise to see you here.”

“Not sure if that’s any better, but oh well…” I muttered. “My other friends have things to do, so I decided to annoy Ui-san for a change.”

“Huh? I don’t think you’re annoying,” Ui said confusedly, peeking from the kitchen.

I glanced at her, and turned my gaze the other way, muttering under my breath: “…that’s because you don’t understand my jokes, gal…”

We all crammed to Yui’s room. I wouldn’t be there myself, if it wasn’t for Yui, who told that she had something important to tell. As we sat there around Yui’s coffee table, we heard surprising news.

“A… a live house?” I repeated after her.

Yui nodded. “That’s right, at New Year’s Eve. We just finished arranging the plans.”

“That’s great, sis!” Ui said with an audible excitement.

A god damn live house… I’ve been to live houses a few times, listening to different bands. I guess it can be seen as one’s first public gig, if you don’t count school festivals. The girls must be pretty excited. I mean, I would be, if I were in their shoes. I’m pretty excited for my performance at the Winter Festival, and it’s still couple of months away. What live house will they be performing at, anyway? I wonder if I could get ticke—

“Here, Eiji-kun,” Yui said, cutting my thought process short.

“I, uh… What?” I stuttered.

“A ticket to the concert. You’ll come to see it, right?” she said, waving the said thing in her hand.

Still confused a bit, I grabbed the purple ticket, handling it carefully. “Thanks. Damn right I’ll come.”

Yui then handed two other tickets to Ui, saying that they’re for her and Jun.

“A ticket to my sister’s first public performance… it’s too precious to be wasted,” Ui whimpered, clearly touched by Yui’s gesture.

“Then how do you plan on seeing it…?” I muttered out of frustration.

“Oh, I need to give one to Nodoka-chan, too,” Yui thought to herself.

Ah, Nodoka, or as I call her, the spectacle-headed girl. I’ve met her a few times over the year, when she has happened to be visiting the Hirasawa residence at the same time as I. Save for some casual chitchat, we never really conversate that much. But then again, I’m Ui’s friend, and she’s Yui’s. I mean, just imagine what would happen if I tried to have Ichiro talk with one of my sister’s friends. It’d be very awkward, that’s for damn sure.

“Here, Eiji-kun.”

My though process was, once again, cut short, when Ui handed me a teacup.

Ten days later, winter holiday had already begun. It was afternoon, and the sky was starting to turn orange. I was hanging around a street corner in downtown, waiting. After a bit, three familiar girls appeared on a walkway across the street.

One of them, Jun, noticed me. “Oh, there he is. Eiji-kun, over here!”

Watching out for cars, I quickly crossed the street to get to the girls.

Ui cocked her head, a bit sorry looking. “I hope we didn’t make you wait for too long.”

“Nah, not at all,” I said. It was a lie, I’ve been waiting here for almost twenty minutes, but didn’t want to mention it.

“Ah, Sugimoto-san. Long time no see,” the third girl, Nodoka, greeted me.

“Yo,” I greeted her back. “So, where to now?”

Nodoka dug out a sheet from her pocket, which turned out to be a directions sheet. “It should be only a few blocks away.”

Without further ado, I joined the girls as we walked along the street.

After a few blocks, Nodoka checked the sheet again. “It should be around here…”

I glanced around, and noticed at least hundred people lined up in front of one building.

“Uh, I guess that’s it…?” I muttered, and the girls finally noticed the line of people.

“A-are they all going to watch the concert?” Jun said out of surprise.

I scratched my head, looking at the line in awe. “Man, I didn’t expect this…”

“Ui!”

We turned to face the familiar voice. It was Yui, who was running towards us. She seemed to be wearing her school uniform, and was carrying a small plastic grocery bag.

“Jun-chan, Nodoka-chan and Eiji-kun, thanks for coming!”

“It’s going to be a big hit,” Jun said to her.

I nodded. “You’re gonna be famous at this rate.”

Yui squirmed a bit, seemingly flattered by our words.

“Hey, look. Backstage pass!” she said, showing us the said thing on her arm.

Something struck me as odd. “Gal, you’re going to perform to hundreds of people in just a bit. Aren’t you supposed to be nervous?”

“Of course I am,” she cheerily said. “I’ll just eat snacks to relax!”

Nope, you’re obviously not nervous at all. Though, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

“Oh, I know! I’ll call your names on stage!” she suggested.

“D-don’t, that’ll make _us_ nervous,” Nodoka said, trying to stop her.

Yui, however, began running towards the live house. “I’ll see you later!”

“No way in hell are you gonna call our names!” I yelled after her. I’m not sure if she heard me.

After waiting in the line for a while and showing our tickets, we finally got inside. It took a bit more waiting, and the concert finally began. First band was completely unknown to me. Nevertheless, their music was good. A bit punkish, just the way I like it. Next up was Yui and her friends. Or should I say After School Tea Time, since that’s their band’s name. And oh boy, did I love their performance. I couldn’t help but jump and wave around like a drunk moron at a club, just like most of the audience did. The music rocked, the light effects rocked… shit, everything was just fucking awesome!

A bit over an hour later the concert was over. It was an experience I wouldn’t soon forget. As I mentioned before, I’ve been to live houses a few times. At those times, however, the bands were professionals. It’s nice to get to see indie bands for a change. As we got outside, the sun had already set. We got the idea to wait for Yui and her friends to get a change to congratulate them. However, we were joined by a woman, who I actually recognized. She was Sawako, the club’s advisor. Her attire was, well, kinda punkish and wild, but I guess that’s just her personality, so I won’t judge her for that. Besides, I like punk.

A bit more waiting later, the girls finally exited the live house.

“Good work,” Sawako congratulated them, getting their attention.

Yui was positively surprised. “Ah, Sawa-chan-sensei! You guys waited for us?” Just what the hell is it with Yui and weird nicknames?

Ui and Jun suddenly ran up to her, and I decided to follow them. Each of us gave the girls our congratulations. They all seemed pleased. However, a ruckus coming from the live house’s entrance caught our attention. At least a dozen people were cheering one of the bands who had performed earlier. The band’s name was Love Crysis, if I remember correctly.

“Thank you for everything! Let’s perform together again!” Yui yelled at them.

“Sure, we’re looking forward to it!” one of the band members yelled back.

But, to my complete surprise, her gaze reached me, and she just started at me, a bit surprised looking. Is there something on my face? Wait, it couldn’t be…?

The girl, however, soon smiled. “So, it’s really Sugimoto-san?”

“Wha…?” I managed to say in the midst of my confusion.

I felt a nugle on my shoulder. It was Tainaka.

“Don’t you recognize her? You were in the same class for three years,” she said to me.

“We were…?” I muttered, digging my memory. Then, I finally got it.

“Ah, I remember now! You’re Maki, you played in our junior high’s band!” I said to the girl, still a bit surprised.

“I couldn’t believe Ritsu-chan when she told me you had mended your ways,” she said with a grin. “It’s nice to see you got rid of those two idiots and found better friends.”

I couldn’t help but smirk. “No way I’d abandon those two clowns.”

With a smile, she waved her hand. “Well, happy New Year!”

“Yeah, you too.”

New Year, huh… I glanced at my watch. Five more hours until the year would change. Guess I better head home… At least that’s what I thought, until I felt a pull on my sleeve. It was Ui.

“We were planning on spending the night at our house. Would you like to come, too?” she asked me.

The question caught me completely off guard. “Huh, me?”

She nodded.

I was bit unsure. “Well, is it alright with others?”

“I’m sure it is, since you’re my friend, after all,” she said, cocking her head with a smile.

“…I see…” I muttered, digging out my phone. “I’ll have to ask my parents.”

I called my mom. As she answered, I asked her if it’d be okay if I spent the night at a friend’s place. She was okay with it, as long as I wouldn’t do anything stupid, like drink alcohol. I’m pretty sure there’s no such danger at Hirasawa residence…

We sat around the living room’s kotatsu, eating a delicious hotpot. As I finished my meal, I laid down on the floor, since I didn’t have much to contribute to their conversations. However, Sawako tried to force me into the conversation.

“What do you think, Sugimoto-san? Which would suit Azusa better?” she asked me, holding two very, very, _very_ revealing pieces of clothing.

Keep calm, Sugimoto. Calm down. Don’t let her to get the best of you.

“…I don’t know, hard choice,” I muttered, turning my gaze back to the ceiling.

“D-don’t say anything so embarrassing, you idiot!” Nakano yelled at me.

I quickly sat up. “Then what the hell was I supposed to say!?” I yelled back at her.

The girls just laughed at our quarreling, making us both back down. Everyone finally calmed down when Ui announced that the New Year’s noodles were ready. Only a single taste was enough, and I immediately fell in love. With the food, I mean. It was god damn delicious. As I emptied my bowl, I noticed Ui beckoning me to follow her to the kitchen, so I followed her there.

“Um, are you going to stay up with them?” she asked.

I leaned back to see the group of girls, who were talking with each other. I turned back to Ui, and smiled a bit.

“Nah, I’d feel myself an outcast. Besides, I’m getting kinda tired.”

“I was thinking about going to sleep, too. But before that, I’ll set you a futon in my room,” she said, and walked to the stairs.

I spent some minutes looking out the kitchen’s window. The town was still lively due to the New Year’s. After having enough of that, I took one last glance at the club, and walked upstairs. I leaned against the wall, waiting for Ui to be done. A bit later she walked out of her room. However, she didn’t notice me standing there, so she walked right at me, striking her forehead against my chin.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you! Are you alright?” she asked me, holding her forehead.

“I was just about to ask you the same,” I muttered, holding my chin.

Ui had changed into her pajamas, and had taken her ponytail off, making her look like her sister. I walked into her room, and noticed a futon on the floor. Taking off everything save for my t-shirt and jeans, I slipped inside the futon. Ui turned off the lights, getting in her own bed. Minutes passed, and I still couldn’t fall asleep. The muffled sounds of Yui and her friends having fun could be heard. I glanced towards Ui’s bed, and noticed Ui looking back at me.

After staring at each other for a bit, she chuckled. “I guess it’s hard to sleep, since the rest are so lively downstairs.”

I smiled, turning my gaze back to the ceiling. “It’s been two years since I first visited this place.”

“Oh, has it really?” Ui muttered, a bit surprised. “Time sure flies.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I wonder what the upcoming year will bring us?”

“Hopefully, a lot of fun moments, just like these,” she said.

“Wouldn’t that be nice…” I muttered, and yawned.

I’m not sure how long we chatted. At some point, we just stopped, both dozing off. Two years… man, that’s a long time. During that, I’ve made a lot of new, great friends. Maki’s and my small conversation earlier today proved something to me: No matter what kind of a past you have, as long as you work to redeem yourself, people will forgive and forget. At least the good kind of people.


End file.
